The grubby inside story of the sex assault charge against Dezi Freeman that sparked the deadly shootout with police

For the first time the details of the shocking sexual assault allegations against fugitive gunman Dezi Freeman can be revealed. 

The disturbing episode involving a young girl is alleged to have taken place years ago during a family outing at Mount Buffalo, the same wilderness where Freeman is now in hiding.

It was these historic claims that saw ten officers descend on his rural property in Porepunkah to execute a search warrant, unaware that the self-proclaimed sovereign citizen had a homemade shotgun concealed in his bus. 

The Daily Mail has seen the extraordinary footage of the 27-minute siege showing Freeman, 56, barricaded inside his bus with his wife Mali and their two-year-old son.

‘We have got a search warrant right here,’ one officer was heard saying. 

‘Come out and have a look at it. Come out and talk to us Dez, we are not going away.’

Freeman demands to know what the warrant is for and when told it related to a sexual assault allegation involving the girl, who the police named, Freeman erupted. 

‘Oh for f*** sake what bulls***,’ he screams, branding the police ‘psychopaths’ and accusing them of ‘terrorising him’. 

‘You have been targeting me for seven years,’ Freeman claims. 

‘Tell your goons to stop breaking the door. This is domestic terrorism, why did you join the police, so you can terrorise families.’

He accused the police of ‘trespassing’ and committing ‘countless crimes’. 

According to friends of Freeman the allegations centre around a day trip when the self-styled naturist took his children and their friend on a hike to a waterhole on Mount Buffalo behind his property.

It was there that the father-of-three stripped off to swim naked in front of his sons and the young girl without warning. 

‘Dezi believes in living like ancient tribes, living off the land and being nude,’ a friend told Daily Mail. 

‘Yes, it is wildly inappropriate to do that and most people would realise that but Dezi did not like to conform to societal expectations.’ 

Traumatised, the youngster later confided in her parents, who were so upset they confronted Freeman.  

‘He brushed it off as a misunderstanding and was actually annoyed they brought it up,’ the friend said. 

‘Later he even told others the matter had been blown out of proportion.’ 

Now, years later, clearly still distressed by his untoward behaviour, the young girl filed an official police complaint against Freeman. 

Given his history and open hatred for authority, senior officers made the decision to arrive mob-handed with ten officers in both plain clothes and uniform as a precaution.

What followed was an extended back and forth between Freeman and several officers. 

Freeman continued to rail against the sexual assault allegation, demanding more details, but police said they did not want to discuss the matter in front of his wife and children.

Within 30 minutes of police arriving, Freeman fled into the bush which sparked one of the most shocking manhunts in Australian history. 

Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and Detective Neal Thompson, 59, died while trying to serve Freeman a warrant. A third officer was seriously injured.

Almost 500 police, trackers and specialist units have since been deployed in the massive operation to find Freeman, which entered its third week on Wednesday. 

Police have already searched more than 100 properties in the surrounding towns and received hundreds of tips since announcing a $1million reward for information leading to Freeman’s arrest.