A cheeky sign outside the Bali Pink Palace Spa sparked the Indonesian police raid that landed an Australian couple behind bars.
The spa’s sign, now covered with a hastily installed tarp, revealed that it was supposedly operating as a bisexual brothel when it boasted: “Happy cock, happy life.”
The police raid led to the arrest of Melbourne couple Michael, 50, and Lynley Le Grand, 44, as local police cracked down on the illegal sex industry in Bali.
The Australian couple owns the popular GOAT bar hotel empire in Bali, but is now in custody following the raid on the ‘sensual spa’ at the Pink Palace.
Indonesian reports say the Pink Palace was raided because it allegedly “offered same-sex prostitution and bisexual practices” that go against Indonesian culture.
On the day of the raid, police allegedly found “several sexily dressed women and muscular men, behaving in an effeminate manner.”
Homosexuality is frowned upon in Indonesia. A Bali police spokesman said officers confiscated items from the Pink Palace, including lingerie, condoms and massage oil.
Police have blocked off the site with police tape and covered the large pink neon sign advertising “sensual spa and relaxation” with a cartoon of a rooster wearing sunglasses and the words “Happy Coq, Happy Life.”
With heads bowed, Michael Le Grand and his wife Lynley parade in handcuffs outside Bali police headquarters after their arrest.
Lynley and Michael Le Grand own a hotel empire in Bali where the Melbourne couple run a chain of hotels, a luxury rental villa, a cafe and the Pink Palace, now closed by police.
Bali police closed the Pink Palace’s “sensual spa and relaxation centre” and covered its sign with a cover over the venue’s neon sign featuring a rooster and the words “happy coq, happy life”.
Police arrested and handcuffed the Le Grands, accused of operating the Pink Palace in Badung and renting a luxury villa which they rent for $200 a night.
A police spokesperson told ABC that the Pink Palace was allegedly tipping over. between $95,000 and $285,000 a year.
Michael Le Grand bowed his head somberly as he and his wife paraded with their wrists cuffed behind their backs at Bali police headquarters over the weekend.
Le Grands also operates the Corner House cafe and a series of pubs, each known as “The Goat”, in different famous Bali beach locations.
One of the Goat pubs was raided two years ago for an alleged illegal horse betting operation, but no charges were brought.
Gambling and prostitution are illegal in Bali, and traditional social norms in Indonesia do not accept homosexuality or gender transition.
Even in Buddhist Bali, which is more relaxed than the rest of the world’s largest Islamic country, same-sex couples are not eligible for any of the legal protections available to male-female couples.
Last year, Indonesia passed a new penal code that potentially violates the rights of LGBT people and others by making consensual sexual relations outside of marriage a criminal offense.
The country does not recognize same-sex marriage. Its new laws also criminalize abortion, increase prison sentences for blasphemy and formalize Sharia law, which discriminates against women and girls.
Originally raided on September 11, the Pink Palace operated by advertising ‘spa packages’ on social media and using vans decorated with the venue’s rooster logo to pick up clients.
Dressed in an orange prison T-shirt, emblazoned with the word ‘Tahanan Polda Bali’, meaning ‘detained, Bali Police’ and handcuffed behind her back, Lynley Le Grand is detained at police headquarters.
Hotel entrepreneurs Michael and Lynley Le Grand were arrested in Bali last Friday after their Pink Palace spa was raided for alleged prostitution. The venue’s neon sign, with the words “Happy Coq, Happy Life”, has now been covered up by Bali police.
Police allege that guests would be picked up and taken to the location where they could choose from a room full of “therapists,” who were sex workers.
Clients were allegedly shown a menu of massage treatments including “sensation, body-to-body and happy ending massages” and, police allege, were then entered into a private room to have sex.
One of the women found working as a therapist during the raid, NSP, was allegedly a minor, 17 years and seven months old.
Bali police charged the two Le Grands and four other people, including the couple’s operations director, general manager and two receptionists.
They were charged under Indonesia’s Child Protection Laws, which prohibit the sexual and economic exploitation of children, and also with a pornography crime.
They were taken to the Bali Police Detention Center.
At the age of 22, Lynley Le Grand was injured at Paddy’s bar in Kuta Beach in the 2002 bombings by Islamic militant terrorists. She was flown to Melbourne to recover.
The Le Grands have four children, including an eldest son who is a Melbourne DJ.
Le Grand operates popular sports bars which open between 9am and 3am, are frequented mainly by Australians and other tourists, and broadcast events such as the AFL and NRL grand finals on large television screens.
Police closed the scene, barricading it with crime scene tape and arrested eight people, including Melbourne couple Michael and Lynley Le Grand, who own a hotel empire in Bali.
Michael Le Grand inside one of his Bali Goat pubs, on Legian Beach on the island paradise
The Le Grands have advertised their villa in Seminyak for $200 a night and celebrated the fact that it is heavily booked as Christmas approaches.
Police had previously raided The Goat Pub in Seminyak in June 2022 and arrested him and three members of staff, seizing cash and other items related to alleged “horse racing” betting.
After a day of interrogations at the Denpasar Police Criminal Investigation Unit, Lynley Le Grand picked up the four who were released without charge.
Anyone caught facilitating gambling in Indonesia can face up to 10 years in prison.
The Le Grands are both long-time residents of Bali, and Michael posted on Facebook a year ago a photograph of a sunset over a Bali boardwalk with the words: “I think I may have found my permanent accommodation (sic) “.
Last Friday, police publicly presented the couple dressed in orange police T-shirts to the media along with eight other people arrested at the Pink Palace spa.
Under anti-pornography laws, the Le Grands could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
