Sameh Bayda, 20, and his bride, Alo-Bridget Namoa, 20, spent barely a month as husband and wife before they were arrested early last year and accused of plotting to stab members of the public with a knife.

After spending more than a year-and-a-half in custody, the pair were briefly united in the dock at Downing Centre Local Court today where they faced a committal hearing on the terrorism charges.

Wearing a headscarf, Namoa stroked her husband’s beard once, rested her head on his shoulder and cuddled into him.

Other times they sat closely, heads tilted together, smiling at each other as they chatted.

Bayda is charged with three counts of collecting terrorist-related documents while Namoa has been charged with one count of possessing a hunting knife connected with terrorism and collecting terrorist-related documents.

The pair have also been charged with conspiring to do an act in preparation for a terrorist attack.

At a previous court appearance police allege that before their arrest Namoa sent a text to Bayda saying they were a “jihadi Bonnie and Clyde”.

Namoa is of Pacific Islander decent and converted from Catholicism to Islam after meeting her husband.

The pair were married on December 30, 2015, weeks before Bayda was arrested in January last year. Namoa was arrested the following month.

The pair were supported in court by a large contingent of both their families with Namoa blowing kisses to some of her nine siblings who attended.

The pair almost weren’t allowed to sit together with Magistrate Susan Horan expressing her reluctance to have them sit together in the small dock and ordered them not to speak to each other.

However when their defence barrister Geoffrey Foster requested they be allowed to talk about their case in the dock Ms Horan consented, warning the couple’s lawyer that they must behave appropriately.

The court heard the prosecution had an 11,000 page brief of evidence against the pair which included 12 PDF books on jihadism that Ms Namoa allegedly downloaded onto her phone.

The committal hearing hit a stumbling block when Mr Foster requested Ms Horan excuse herself from hearing the case because of a concern about “perceived bias”.

He told the court Ms Horan had worked as a senior Commonwealth prosecutor in organised crime and counter terrorism as late as last December and had worked in the same office as prosecutors involved in the case.

In other court news: A Current Affair journo’s child pornography charges

“It may be seen by a fair-minded lay observer that Your Honour, having worked with, within months, in an office that dealt with counter terrorism … you might not bring an impartial mind to this court,” he said.

Ms Horan went off the bench for 60 minutes to consider the application and then returned and dismissed the request.

Ms Horan said she had “every intention of fulfilling her judicial oath” to be an impartial judge.

She adjourned the case to read court material and after she went off the bench again Bayda and Namoa embraced quickly, kissing each other on the cheek, before being taken away by guards.

The committal hearing will continue today.