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Scientology sect to reject role in deaths
The Church of Scientology last night denied the Sydney man who was allegedly stabbed to death by his psychotic daughter after refusing her psychiatric drugs was a top recruiter for the church.
A man with the same name as the dead father is listed on the Church of Scientology’s “Honor Roll” in the 2002 Impact magazine which glorifies members worldwide for their efforts in “signing more than 20 members to the church” or for donating $US20,000 or more.
The man’s daughter, 25, faced Bankstown Local Court yesterday charged with fatally stabbing her father and sister at their Revesby home last Thursday. She is also charged with stabbing her mother, 52.
The girl’s parents refused her psychiatric treatment because of their Scientology beliefs, the court heard.
The man is also named on a website, stop-wise.biz, set up by a former Scientologist as a warning to would-be church recruits that the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, known as WISE, is a recruitment vehicle for Scientology.
He is listed in the 2004 WISE business directory, which is reproduced on stop-wise.biz as a caution to those who come in contact with him that his agenda is to “get money for every new Scientology recruit” he converts.
But a Church of Scientology spokeswoman last night said the man had never been an official church recruiter and denied it was the same person.
“I can tell you he was not a recruiter for the church. And I’ve been part of the church for more than 26 years,” Vicki Dunstan said yesterday.
The Church last night released a statement claiming “the accused has never been a member of the Church of Scientology and at no time have we had any contact concerning the accused, her illness or her treatment from her family”.
- Justice Anderson, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, quoted atWhat judges have to say about Scientology
“The Church does not provide medical advice to its parishioners and directs all people to qualified medical doctors for appropriate assistance,” the statement said.
The best-known supporter of the anti-psychiatry campaign is actor Tom Cruise who, in 2005, publicly clashed with fellow actor Brooke Shields.
Cruise criticised Shields for using anti-depressants after the birth of her first child.
Rather than drugs, she should have taken vitamins, the Hollywood star claimed.
“You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do,” he famously told an interviewer.
Cruise and Shields reconciled over the issue after Cruise visited the actress at her home and made a heartfelt apology.
All was clearly forgiven with the actress in attendance at Cruise’s wedding to Katie Holmes last year.
Cruise is understood to have introduced his friend PBL executive chairman James Packer to Scientology.
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