12 GROOMED BY MALE HEAD Sinister sex abuse leader behind cult in new Cate drama
is Kenja a cult. People come and go as they like. It is entirely up to each individual how much of it they apply.”
It still has centres in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. Hamilton, 71, continues to be involved in a “consultancy role”.
Last month she lost a compensation claim, alleging Dyers took his life only because police wrongly painted him the “paedophile leader of a cult”.
Kenja told us: “Kenja vigorously denies sexual assault has occurred at this organisation. Over a number of years people that were hostile to Kenja made false allegations of sexual assault.
“Kenja has a strict ethical code of behaviour and from time to time people who did not comply with standards of decency and honesty that were required were asked to leave the organisation.
“Continued allegations against the late Ken Dyers and Kenja are scurrilous and opportunistic. Ken Dyers, who passed away in 2007, was exonerated by the courts of any wrongdoing in relation to such allegations.”
Dyers was facing 22 counts relating to sexual assault of two underage girls during Kenja counselling sessions.
His trial was put on hold as he was ruled mentally unfit. He killed himself aged 85, a day after another girl had come forward with similar claims, saying Dyers had told her at around 12 that she had “sexual degradation in her energy field”.
During the “energy conversions”, Dyers would encourage members to “reach the deep recesses of the soul” to reveal their darkest secrets. It is claimed these were used for blackmail if they dared leave.
Netflix’s Sofie is inspired by Germanborn Australian citizen Cornelia Rau. Her
parents became concerned after members allegedly moved into her Sydney flat in 1998.
She was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and sectioned, but discharged herself.
When police picked her up in 2004 she was so terrified of the sect finding her that she gave a false identity, ending up being held for 10 months in an immigration centre. In 2008 she won $2.6million compensation for her time in detention.
Her sister Christine said of Kenja: “They focused on a few cracks in her psyche and split them wide open.”
Actress Cate said the series shows how cults lure people “at a profound point of vulnerability”. She said: “They go to find self-realisation, and emerge in pieces.”
People enter a cult to find self-realisation …and then they emerge in pieces
Cate BlanChett STAR OF NETFLIX SERIES STATELESS