Martial Arts Professional editorial. Every charge figure below is attributed to the outlet that reported it and the date it was reported. All allegations are untested. The defendant has entered no pleas and is presumed innocent.
Why we are publishing this rather than the version going around
A Queensland committal-stage case involving a former karate instructor has been circulating this week in industry newsletters and monitoring briefings, attached to a set of very specific figures: 77 counts of indecent treatment of children under 14, at least 11 complainants, rape charges, and a court date of 14 October 2026.
We could not verify any of those four claims, and the primary court reporting contradicts two of them.
That matters more than usual here. These are untested allegations against a named, living man who has not stood trial. Publishing an inflated or wrong charge sheet about someone in that position is not a rounding error — it is the kind of thing that ends publications. So this piece is what the record actually says, and an explicit account of what we could not confirm.
What is on the record
ABC News reported on 26 January 2024 that Christopher Martin Bulbrook, then 63, a former karate instructor, had been charged with more than 100 child sex offences and granted bail with strict conditions after appearing at Brisbane Magistrates Court.
The charge breakdown reported at that time was 105 charges in total:
- 96 counts of indecent treatment of girls under 16
- 8 counts of indecent assault on females
- 1 count of indecent assault
7NEWS Central Queensland reported on 12 September 2024 that the alleged offending spanned 1983 to 2011 and occurred in Rockhampton and on the Fraser Coast, and that the matter had been adjourned to November.
More recent promotion of a Courier Mail report refers to a former karate instructor facing 118 child sex charges spanning three decades, with the case delayed roughly two years by the size of the evidence brief. That article is behind a hard paywall we could not lawfully access, so we cannot confirm its publication date, its byline, or whether the 118 figure supersedes the 105.
What we could not confirm
- “77 counts of indecent treatment of children under 14.” Contradicted. The sourced figure is 96 counts of indecent treatment of girls under 16. No source we found uses an under-14 category or the number 77.
- Rape charges. Unsourced. Neither ABC nor 7NEWS lists a rape count.
- “At least 11 complainants.” Unsourced. ABC noted a complainant as young as eight but gave no total.
- A 14 October 2026 court date. Unsourced. He did not appear on the Rockhampton Magistrates Court list for 17 September 2026.
- His current age, custody status and plea position. He was 63 in January 2024 and would now be about 65 or 66. The last confirmed status is bail, January 2024.
We have approached the Queensland Courts media unit for the current charge sheet, the presiding court and the next listing date, and will publish them when confirmed.
Why a trade journal should cover this at all
Not for the crime. Australian and Queensland outlets have that covered, and a martial arts business journal adds nothing by repeating it.
The industry fact is the span. The alleged conduct runs from 1983 to 2011 — twenty-eight years — and the charges were not laid until 2024. Whatever a court eventually finds, an allegation pattern of that length raises a question no school owner can dodge: what, in an ordinary martial arts school, would have surfaced it?
In most schools in 1983, and in a great many today, the honest answer is nothing. There was no screening, no complaint route that bypassed the instructor, no second adult required in a room, no record of a concern ever being raised. A student who wanted to say something had to say it to the person they were worried about, or to someone who trained with him.
That is the structural point we made in our safeguarding analysis this week: commercial martial arts schools sit outside SafeSport’s jurisdiction, outside most state screening law, and are effectively regulated only by their insurers. A case alleging conduct across twenty-eight years is what that gap looks like when it is allowed to run.
A note on how this reached us
The incorrect figures above did not come from a court, a police service or a newspaper. They arrived through an automated news-monitoring summary — the kind an increasing number of school owners, associations and trade outlets now run.
That is worth flagging on its own. Automated monitoring is genuinely useful for spotting that a story exists. It is not a source. Every figure in this piece that we were able to confirm came from going back to the original outlet and reading it; every figure we could not confirm came from the summary and nowhere else.
If your school, your association or your newsletter is republishing monitored alerts, check them against the named source before they go out. In a story about alleged crimes against children, being approximately right is the same as being wrong.
Sources
- ABC News, “Christopher Martin Bulbrook granted bail after being charged with more than 100 child sex offences,” Laura Lavelle, 26 January 2024.
- 7NEWS Central Queensland, 12 September 2024, on the alleged 1983–2011 span, the Rockhampton and Fraser Coast locations and the adjournment.
- Courier Mail / The Morning Bulletin, undated promotion of a report citing 118 charges and a two-year wait — article paywalled and not accessed; figure reported here only as a promoted claim we could not verify.
- Rockhampton Magistrates Court daily list, 17 September 2026, checked and negative.
Corrections are welcome and will be published with attribution. If you hold the current Queensland charge sheet or can confirm the next listing date, please contact the editors.
