Woman found not guilty of murdering Scientologist family

Woman found not guilty of murdering Scientologist family

A young woman has been found not guilty of murdering her Scientologist father and sister in a frenzied stabbing attack at their southwest Sydney home – a judge ruling she’s mentally ill.

The 26-year-old sat quietly in the dock dressed in a bright red coat – she showed no emotion as a not guilty verdict was read out.

The judge accepted she had schizophrenia when she stabbed her father and sister to death and then attacked her mother at their Revesby home last year.

She’ll remain at Cumberland hospital as a mental patient.

The court heard at the time of the attack she’d developed a religious mania and thought she was possessed by an evil spirit.

“I am abundantly satisfied that it is established on the balance of probabilities that the accused was mentally ill at the time of the killings and the wounding, being afflicted by a defect of reason from a disease of the mind which prevented her from appreciating the nature and quality of her acts and that they were wrong,” Justice Michael Grove said.

Her father, a Scientologist has also been cleared of claims he denied her treatment based on his religious beliefs.

The ruling says it was he who took her to a psychiatrist.

Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill… (Scientology is) the world’s largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy.
- Source: Justice Anderson, Supreme Court of Victoria, Australia, quoted at What judges have to say about Scientology

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