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Dressed in a studded black jumpsuit with gold-framed glasses, the Elvis impersonator wedded the well-known psychedelics figure and his glamorous partner in a live-streamed Las Vegas ceremony. The former Byron Bay couple’s eccentric celebration reflected their colourful lifestyle, which centred around groom Rak Razam’s work as an “alchemical storyteller”, author and filmmaker on plant medicines.
However, less than a year later, their whirlwind love story had spiralled into toxicity and alleged abuse.
In May last year, Kira-Tara Razam walked into Tweed Heads police station, alleging Rak had strangled her at her Casuarina home and caused her to black out. Separately, she alleged her then-husband had strangled her at his Mullumbimby home and dragged her along the ground.
These accusations were detailed in a transcript of a part-heard Byron Bay Local Court hearing. Rak pleaded not guilty to two counts of domestic violence choking over two incidents in August and September 2024, arguing Kira-Tara initiated the violence.
However, the 56-year-old pleaded guilty to common assault over the second incident, admitting to holding his wife’s throat as he pushed her against a wall, “knocking her against the floor” and dragging her out of a bedroom, though he denied strangling her.
A ‘loving but tempestuous’ romance
Rak describes himself online as “an alchemical storyteller”, and his work includes first-person books and documentaries about ayahuasca, a psychoactive plant known for inducing profound hallucinogenic experiences. Kira-Tara is a former diamond business owner and part-time “spiritual healer”.
The pair married in Vegas in early 2024, and Rak said their relationship became “loving but tempestuous” due to family and logistical pressures that forced them to live separately.
Arguments culminated in August 2024 with an alleged assault at Kira-Tara’s home in Casuarina, a coastal village between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast.
Due to closed court restrictions, only Rak’s evidence can be published, but open court references paint a picture of Kira-Tara’s allegations.
A meme and ‘a new age goddess’
The viral “hawk tuah” meme involving sexual innuendo and a woman from Nashville started it all.
According to Kira-Tara, Rak called her a whore repeatedly and had compared her to “that whore” in the meme.
But Rak argued he never used the vulgar term and that they were having “new age spiritual discussions” around the “role of the goddess” in the context of Kira-Tara’s social media posts when the fight broke out.
“All I was saying as an academic and a coach and, you know, a professional who looks at these issues, was that there are many faces of the goddess, and that is one of them, but I never directly called her that,” he testified.
Describing the Casuarina altercation, Rak told the court an angry Kira-Tara had thrown three porcelain plates towards him and tried to attack him with a child’s violin. While these moments were “a bit of a blur”, he said his “defences kicked in” and he “somehow held her and pushed her onto the couch”.
Kira-Tara alleged Rak put his hands around her neck and pushed her face-down onto the couch, leaving her unable to breathe and temporarily unconscious.
He said he held her “flailing” and “clawing” wrists as she attacked him and that he was forced into “sitting on her head” while subduing her, but that he had “had no idea her face was on the couch”.
Raj said he did not have “the slightest” intention to choke her, as she’d alleged, and that he believed he “was in self-defence and just holding her hands and then sitting on her head”. He testified that she “went quiet” and he let go.
“I was, like, a metre or two away from her and she regained consciousness – was moving,” he said, later saying he was “not aware that she lost consciousness” but she had “regained motion and mobility”.
The Mullumbimby altercation
After reconciling, another disagreement erupted at Rak’s Mullumbimby home a month later over the apparent use of another derogatory word, “c—”.
Rak claimed Kira-Tara slapped him, and lunged at him on a bed when he later asked for an apology. The court heard she claimed he repeatedly yelled at her.
Rak said he tried to “kick out at her”, injuring his leg, and pushing her in defence.
“I had excruciating pain that actually went through me from the heel impact and then there was just white rage,” he said.
“There was a lot of awkwardness in how to try to get her off me so, and I wasn’t thinking at this point.”
Rak said he “pushed her back against the wall” and repeatedly asked her to stop “attacking” him, as they slid down the wall.
“I responded in a disproportionate way … I was knocking her head against the ground,” he testified.
First, he said he did not remember having his hands on her neck as he pushed her away, then said: “I may [have] – I do believe I had my … hands on her throat.” He added he was not “consciously doing anything”, nor did he remember “the position of anything”.
“I responded in a disproportionate way … I was knocking her head against the ground”.
Rak Razam’s testimony
Rak denied Kira-Tara’s evidence that he jammed his thumbs into her throat to restrict her breathing, but said he “dragged her out of the room towards the door and asked her to leave”.
Several months later, the pair separated.
An officer testified that after going to the police, Kira-Tara sent an audio recording in which her voice was unusually “husky”, and that she expressed pain. She also produced medical records. Rak tendered medical records about his injured foot.
Rak’s lawyers argued Kira-Tara “exaggerated” the events to damage her former partner after discovering he had started a new relationship.
She was sentenced to a two-year conditional release order without being convicted for distributing an intimate image without consent to his new partner.
There are several related ADVO applications regarding the incidents, including Kira-Tara being the protected person and defendant.
The hearing continues in August.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
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