Kenja: Cult leader molested girls

The mother of a girl allegedly molested by a cult leader facing 22 sex offences has told a Sydney court she was “honoured” when he invited her daughter to attend private healing sessions.

Kenneth Emmanuel Dyers, co-founder of the so-called spiritual healing group Kenja, was arrested in October last year at his home in Bundeena, in Sydney’s south, over the alleged assaults of two 12-year-old girls.

The 84-year-old World War II veteran faces 17 aggravated indecent assault charges and one count of aggravated sexual assault in relation to the first girl.

He faces four aggravated indecent assault charges in relation to the second girl.

The offences are alleged to have occurred during “energy conversion sessions” with the self-styled leader at Kenja’s offices in Surry Hills in Sydney between December 2001 and July 2002.

At a committal hearing in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court today, the mother of one girl, who cannot be named, said she was proud when her daughter was asked to attend “processing sessions” with Mr Dyers.

“You were pleased when you got a phone call asking your daughter to attend the processing sessions with Mr Dyers, it was considered an honour?” Crown prosecutor Paul Wagstaff asked.

“Yes, it was,” the woman said.

The woman said her daughter attended at least three sessions with Mr Dyers before the family left the organisation in 2002, citing the financial burden of the contributions Kenja expected from the family.

She said her daughter told her of the abuse a few months later, after similar allegations surfaced concerning her best friend.

“She told me about her friend and how in the sessions with Ken (Dyers) there had been some sexual things that had happened and she told me that they had happened to her as well,” the woman said.

“In her sessions with Ken he had actually touched her breasts. She was quite upset, I think she was very embarrassed about what had happened and that she hadn’t mentioned it when it happened.”

When the father of the other girl, whose name has been withheld to protect her identity, took the witness stand he was accused of having sexual thoughts about his daughter.

“The view of those at Kenja, rightly or wrongly, was that you had an unhealthy sexual fixation on your daughter,” Mr Dyers’ defence lawyer, Graham Turnbull, said.

“Do you deny ever having any kind of sexualised or inappropriate relationship with your daughter?” he asked.

The man replied: “Emphatically”.

The hearing before Magistrate Jacqueline Maree Trad continues.

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