Cult leader commits suicide - followers blame others

Australia — The followers of a cult leader who took his own life have blamed his death on those who pursued him over child sex charges.

Kenneth Emmanuel Dyers, co-founder of the so-called spiritual healing group Kenja, “took his own life” on Wednesday, the group’s website said.

The body of the 85-year-old was found with a gunshot wound to the head at about 11am (AEST) at his Bundeena home in Sydney’s south.

A statement on the Kenja website said Dyers had been suffering “serious ill-health”.

Police said the death was not being treated as suspicious.

The World War II veteran was last year committed to stand trial on 22 child sex offences, but the NSW District Court deemed him unfit for trial in May and ordered a mental health assessment.

The charges related to the alleged assaults of two 12-year-old girls at Kenja’s offices in Sydney’s Surry Hills between December 2001 and July 2002.

During his trademark one-to-one meditations, described as “energy conversion sessions”, Dyers allegedly took the 12-year-olds into private rooms, ordered them to strip and molested them.

He was dogged by similar claims of sexual abuse dating back more than 20 years, each relating to naked “processing sessions”.

Convicted in 1999 of abusing young girls as young as 11 years old, he was cleared in a successful High Court appeal in 2002.

Kenja members have blamed Dyers’ apparent suicide on the effect of more than two decades in court. [...]

Kenja Communication was founded in 1982 by Dyers and actress Jan Hamilton, and preached the power of “energy conversion”, a form of one-to-one meditation. Hamilton also offered workshops in clowning.

This is a summary extract from the full article as it appeared on Brisbane Times, July 26, 2007
Full Article [Cached]