All language subtitles for The.Cult.of.the.Family.S01E01.1080p.WEB.h264-OPUS

Why did you
start to take in the children?

Over 21 years, 28 young people

went through our hands.

Why did you do that?

- I love children.

- Once she became
the leader of a cult

and could get
whatever she wanted,

one thing that she wanted
was lots of little children.

- When a child is born,
delivered by sect doctors,

given to a sect nurse,
and within a period

of 15, 20 minutes from birth,
child born, child taken.

She was preparing
us for when the time happens

to reeducate the world,
what's left of it.

- There was a glamour about Anne

that meant that all
the men were besotted.

Bill was totally beglamoured.

- When they come out
of the LSD experience

they actually believe
that she is Jesus Christ.

- There's such
secrecy around her.

Devotees would do
anything to protect Anne.

- When they hit the
news in Australia,

they pick up sticks
and move to England.

When Anne and Bill were there,

we'd be disciplined
heavily by her and by Bill.

The drug was
given to me by my father.

Anne was there, and it was
done under her instruction.

- What was going on was wrong.

Someone had to do
something about it.

All of a sudden
the door bursts open.

People broke into our house

and came loudly down the stairs.

You're Anouree.

- We're going away.
- Anouree.

- We are.
- You can trust us.

Are we going to go away...

Great big deep breaths.

Good girl.

Okay, everybody.

I'll explain to you
what's going to happen.

They taking them somewhere.

We realise it's
very, very stressful for you.

Where are they going?

You broke Mum and Dad's heart.

- Well
investigations are still
underway

into a religious sect in
Victoria known as The Family.

At the weekend, six
children were seized

from a property owned by
the sect at Lake Eildon

about two hours from Melbourne.

Five of the children
have appeared

in a Melbourne Children's Court

under care and
protection applications.

Children stolen at birth,

brainwashed, beaten, even given

mind-altering drugs like LSD.

The list of the abuses at
The Family's isolated retreat

near Melbourne goes on.

- It was early December and
it looked as though Melbourne

was heading into
a very hot summer.

I was in the arson squad,
Victoria Police Arson Squad.

We got a call to attend a fire
at a school near Ferny Creek.

There was a student
in the school,

a young fella by the
name of Roland Whitaker.

The local senior
constable, he said to me,

"Roland's parents are tied
up with this religious sect."

And that was the
first I'd ever heard

of this cult called The Family.

His first words were,
"Don't get involved.

"If you get involved, it'll
be with you for a lifetime."

He told me that the
leader of The Family

was this woman called
Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

The sect commenced in the 1960s

and was based in Ferny Creek
on the outskirts of Melbourne.

The sect was made up
of professional people

who worshipped Anne
Hamilton-Byrne as Jesus Christ

reincarnated in the female form.

I'm looking
right at each one of you.

You are the initiate.

You are the cosmic being.

You're staring
into the awakening.

Under the influence of LSD,

well Auntie Anne had this
vision that she's got to collect

all these children from birth

because one day there's going
to be either World War III

or natural disasters galore

where most of the population
of the world's going to perish.

She was preparing us for
when the time happens,

to reeducate the world,
what's left of it.

This is the moment
of rebirth upon a new planet.

We're received the call,

and great things will be done.

- Anne thought that
UFOs would come down.

That was one of the reasons
for the perfect discipline.

We wouldn't question, we
would just walk straight

into the UFOs in a file.

When it was all
over, we'd come down

and we would tend to what
was left of the world.

It was such a bizarre story.

There were allegations of the
theft of children at birth

and of the administration

of illicit drugs, LSD,
to these children.

As a bit of an
inquisitive copper,

of course you want
to see for yourself.

- The paranoia amongst
The Family was just rife.

Everyone thought that everyone

was listening into everything.

I mean, I was
petrified of people

standing out the front just
looking at the property.

Being stalked, our
phones being tapped.

We knew that Anne

and her husband Bill
had fled overseas.

But Anne was still directing
her followers by telephone.

- Lots of phone calls,
to-ing and fro-ing

with Auntie Anne and Uncle Bill.

Oh, she knew she had
a lot of enemies.

Auntie Anne was always afraid

that somebody was
going to kill her.

She rang and told us to
get rid of all the records.

It was chaotic.

It was extremely chaotic.

Uncle Bill's stuff,
Auntie Anne's paperwork.

Everything that could be
destroyed was destroyed.

At that time, Vic
Pol was treating this as a,

oh, "this is a welfare issue.

We've got these kids.

Yeah, might have been a bit
mistreated and so forth.

But it's really for
the Department of
Community Services.

It's not really a
policing issue."

And I differed in my view

because of the information
that I'd gathered.

Late October, early
November of 1989

I got a phone call from the
detective chief inspector

in charge of the Victoria
Police Drug Squad, said,

"We're going to set up a task
force. "Want you to be on it."

And I said, "Yeah, more
than happy to be on it."

"We're going to give
you a senior sergeant."

I was a sergeant.

"Senior sergeant.

And we'll give you
four detectives.

You've got three months,
12 weeks to clean it up."

Morning, all.

- Good morning.
- Hey, Lex.

- We had folders.

We had my report.

We had a phone book.

I mean, we had
one car allocated.

That was the total resourcing
for Operation Forest.

I was desperate to meet Anne
Hamilton-Byrne from day one.

But we didn't know
where Anne was.

We were told that
Anne was in the UK.

We were told that Anne
was in the United States.

We were told that Anne
was here and there

but never in Australia.

The closest I could get
for now was a TV interview.

No Aryan race?

- What's this Aryan
race business?

You're talking about
Germany, aren't you?

- No, we didn't want the
children to look like

so-called Nazi children

they've been labelled as.

- No, I wanted them to look

like brothers and sisters
though, I must admit this.

I love them.

I love them in their
little smocks and jeans,

the long hair in ribbons.

It was beautiful.

It was lovely to see.

Why did you
start to take in the children?

- Over 21 years, 28 young
people went through our hands.

- Why did you do that?

- I love children.

Something just
did not ring true to me.

There was something
driving this woman.

I didn't know what it was,
but it was absolutely bizarre.

We needed to dig and
dig and dig to find out

who we were dealing with, why
did they want these children

What was behind it all?

In the 50s and 60s in Australia

there was a huge
interest amongst upper

and middle class people in
alternative spirituality.

A lot of people
in the 60s were trying to find

a truth, somewhere to
fit in in the world.

And there was more to
life than the 50s and 60s

and the staid plaid go to work,

go to the six o'clock swill,

earn your money, retire, die.

Yoga is a philosophy of life.

It began in India centuries ago,

spread through the east,
and is now becoming

increasingly popular
in Australia.

Most of the new
devotees are women.

I had been
teaching yoga quietly.

I had already started
meditation classes

but I came to the conclusion

that I was very, very definitely
going to have my school

for the physical, the mental,

and the spiritual
control of the body.

And from there I
met Raynor Johnson.

Today Prime
Minister Robert Menzies

led the procession to open a
new wing at Queen's College,

named after Dr. Raynor Johnson,

Master of the
college for 25 years.

- Raynor was a typical
Edwardian English gentleman.

He grew up in the city of Leeds

and was a very clever young boy.

He was a First Class honours
graduate from Oxford.

He had worked at the
Cavendish Laboratory

at the very front edge
of nuclear physics.

The University of Melbourne
thought they were getting

a very distinguished physicist.

But he really lost
interest in physics

by the time he arrived.

Raynor was interested
in the world

of spirits and spiritualism.

He believed that
he had been chosen

by a college of spirits
in the beyond somewhere

because he was a scientist

and would be able to
speak to his generation.

Nothing is impossible.

- Edwardian Liberals
were as a group

very interested in Spiritualism.

In many homes, if you
had a dinner party,

after you'd had coffee and port

you would go into a living room

and you'd have a Ouija board

and you'd try and connect
with spirits beyond.

This was really
surprisingly widespread

in the sort of upper
middle classes.

I was working very
hard on an essay

in the east wing of the
College when the master

came into the
quadrangle accompanied

by a youngish blond woman.

She was doing something strange

around the entrances and
exits from the quadrangle.

That was Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

It's very clear that Raynor
would have been flattered

by Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

But Raynor was naive.

I think that she was cultivating
or grooming the Master.

- I can't imagine
really why he fell

into her trap so quickly.

I remember very clearly the
first time that Raynor met Anne.

It was Sunday.

Everybody was in the
kitchen except Raynor.

He was in his study, and

Mary was making the
gravy for the dinner.

The doorbell went,
and I opened the door.

And Anne was there.

Raynor was expecting
her, so I brought her in.

In the time it took for
Mary to make the gravy,

Raynor came flying
out of the study,

almost in a flap,
very excited, saying,

"Mary, Mary, come quickly.

"She wants to speak to you."

Maybe she batted
her eyelashes at him

with her dyed blond hair.

It was as if she'd waved
a magic wand over him.

I had to start it.

That was divine orders.

That was my mission.

That was the divine vision.

From this date onwards

there was but little
doubt in my mind

that I had met my master.

During the closing
months of 1963,

Anne was gathering around her
a nucleus of a dozen people

and showing us the foundations
of the spiritual path.

From time to time,
as the teachers saw

they were ready,
she initiated them.

So far the master's plan
involves her remaining hidden.

Her work is being done
unseen, unheard, and unknown.

In the early 60s
my mother was working in

the tuck shop at Box
Hill Technical College.

And one of the ladies there was
doing yoga and she suggested

to Mum that she do the same

because she was a
little bit overweight.

When Mum first started
the yoga, it was wonderful

because she lost weight,
she was motivated,

she was getting
out of the house.

She told me that
what she was doing

was very special, because
Anne Hamilton-Byrne

was this Jesus Christ.

There was a lot of talk
about ruling the world,

and having a perfect world,

and how everybody
that didn't fit in

to that little group
weren't going to survive.

- We didn't think of
ourselves as a cult.

I mean, that would
have been ridiculous.

This was a very, very gradual
immersion in new values.

It wasn't just
random happy hippies.

It was Australian people
who were handpicked,

genuinely professional,
successful people

that you might
live next door to.

And it was all secret.

You've got to remember,

this woman had
phenomenal presence.

In ancient times
we hear about enchantresses

who could enslave
people just by a glance.

There was a glamour
about Anne that meant

that all the men were besotted.

Bill was totally beglamoured,
just beglamoured.

She's strong, she's powerful.

Entrancing, beautiful, loving.

- I was looking
for a mother figure

because I didn't have
much of a one growing up.

Anne personified this sort
of idealised mother figure,

the perfect mother,
or the great mother.

I had this yearning to belong
to Anne's group of people.

If I could get close to her

I would have a place
where I belonged.

- They would meet
regularly at a hall

in Ferny Creek on a
five acre property.

And in its heyday in
the late 60s, early 70s

there were hundreds of people
that would turn up there,

including people of high
standing in the community.

- We waited, and we meditated,

and we waited, and we meditated.

And then eventually
Anne would come in

from the back of the hall.

To thy last supper.

- When she spoke, you listened.

And what came out of her mouth

was very much worth
listening to, believe me.

For neither have
I betrayed any secrets

to thine enemies, nor have I
given thee the kiss of Judas.

But like a thief
I pray unto thee...

- Right the way through my
entire 32 years with the Lodge,

I was in the sound
room recording

every single lecture, speech.

Every word that Anne
uttered went on tape.

- She taught this mishmash
of Eastern religions

involving an endless wheel

of life and death
and reincarnation,

and the bad karma
builds up and up and up.

And it's a bit like a
toxic debt of a nation.

It's actually so big you
can never pay it off.

So you have to have somebody
to cancel it out for you.

And she cancels
all of your karma

at the initiation ceremony.

So the only karma you've
got left to work out

is what you were born to
work out in this life.

We were brought up that

we've had many
millions of lives.

And Auntie Anne
promised us that this

was our last life
if we stood by her.

- Only one rule, do absolutely
everything she tells ya.

And that might range
from what to eat,

what to wear, what to
think, who to marry,

who to not marry, everything.

Total obedience.

All right, it's 4:50.

- 4.53.

- 4.53 on Wednesday
the 1st 1990.

- And weren't we taping?

- Mm-hm.

- Where is it?

Here.

- Oh, right.

- It's difficult with dates
because our life was sort of,

we were brought up in such
a stultifying daily routine.

Every day was the same.

Every weekend was the same.

- By the colours of our aura,

she could tell what
we were feeling,

or supposedly what we
were feeling or thinking.

- I remember sitting
down with the children

in the early days and I said,

"I can't promise you that
we will arrest someone,

"or charge someone,
or get a conviction."

But I said that we will
do our absolute best.

My first memory
is Mum was taking me

up to Eildon.

And I knew I was going
to live up there.

I would have been only about
maybe two, two and a half.

And I remember saying,

"Oh, Mum, look at all
the wattle trees."

It was beautiful.

That's my first memory
of the actual sect,

being up with all
the other kids.

- As far as we knew, we were all

Anne Hamilton-Byrne's
children, well 14 of us were.

- Growing up it was
Anne and it was Bill.

They were Mum and Dad.

And then there was foster kids.

They were kids of
other sect members

that would either
come up on weekends

or stay there for stints
of a couple of years.

At its heyday, or I should say
the greatest amount of kids

at any given stage was 28.

- We all had blonded
bleached hair.

Not all of us.

Some had red hair.

Because Auntie Anne was
actually naturally red-headed.

Very, very royal Von
Trapp sort of clothes.

Your velvets, your smart shoes,

and everything had to be
polished and looking the same.

And that was really
to implant in us

that we're all
brothers and sisters.

- The Aunties were the
people who looked after us.

When the Aunties knew that
we were going for walks

we were always
accompanied by them.

There must have been that
fear that we would run away.

We'd walk around and we'd
peer into people's houses,

wondered if they had
the same food as we did.

And if not, what was that
food that they were eating?

- You weren't
encouraged to socialise

or interact with other people.

In fact, it was us and them.

So we were separate from
the rest of the world.

We received information
that Bill Hamilton-Byrne

had been seen in Langton
Green, a small village in Kent

where the cult owned
a large property.

- With the sect, every so
often they hit the news.

And when the hit the
news in Australia,

they pick up sticks
and move to England.

Langton Green is a big farm

in the stockbroker's
belt in England,

10 acres, a 16th century house.

And it's got tunnels going
under right down to Brighton.

Kings escaped through
there, whatever.

All sorts of history
in that place.

Show them this side
of the house here, honey.

Along here the little
window up at the top.

Queen Elizabeth..before
Queen Elizabeth.

There's our dining
room window open.

I believe it
goes back to 15th century.

Yes.

- Big house, but it
had been added on.

And one section was for Anne.

Look.

Turn around, Daddy.

- Who me?

Say something.

- Mm, love you, darling.

Love you to the children.

- To the children.

You love them, don't you, Daddy?

- I do love them, darling, I do.

And I love you, darling.

- Love you, Annie.

- When we were children they
would travel a lot overseas

between Australia,
America, and England.

So they weren't always at
home with us at Eildon.

- We'd be told
they'd be overseas,

so we thought they were over
the other side of the lake.

And we'd rock ourselves
to sleep at night

calling out, "Mummy, Daddy,"

thinking that they were
just over the lake.

- When Mum and Dad came back
from England or overseas

was generally the time that
they used to do filming,

'cause of course we
were all very excited

and all very happy to see them.

- I think we put on
quite a good performance.

It's a very a neat piece of
propaganda, the movie business.

I'm sure it was
designed to show people

who Anne wanted to
get into the cult,

why wouldn't you want
to be a part of this?

It looks idyllic.

You starve the kids, but
you want them all for film,

so anyway, you just tell them

that they're going to have
some chocolate or something

and then you've got a
nice happy-looking family.

- Very few adult
members of the sect

really knew what was
happening to those children.

They were kept in isolation
even from the sect.

There were special
aunties and uncles

who Anne entrusted to
raise her children.

But the others only
saw them occasionally

when they'd go to the hall
and perform for the sect.

And then they'd be shunted
off again in buses,

but back to Eildon.

- The main Aunties were
Trish and Aunt Elizabeth.

And they used to come
up every fortnight

and look after us for two
weeks on, two weeks off.

They starved us, they beat us,

they did all sorts of
horrible things to us.

Around 5:30 in the
morning we would be woken up.

There would be hatha
yoga meditation.

And then set up
the boys' room for school

Beds would be rolled away.

Out would come the school books.

There were trestle
tables, all the chairs,

with a blackboard at the
end, seven days a week.

A plate of vegetables for lunch,

a plate of vegetables
for dinner.

- With all of the
vitamins were laid out.

School finished four o'clock.

There were showers,
yoga, meditation,

dinner, and then there was
homework, reading, bed.

And that pretty much repeated
52 weeks in the year.

- From about 1980 Anne
increased the dosage

and types of drugs
we were taking.

I was given Valium, half a
tablet three times a day.

- Anatensol and Tegretol,

Mogadon and Valium every
single day, morning and night.

- I do remember of one
occasion where I had LSD

when I was about eight or nine.

I do not remember actually
being administered it.

But I certainly remember
the effects of it.

- You were punished
most days in some way,

whether it was lines
or missing food,

or three days was really bad,

if you went without
food for three days.

- The longest I ever went
without food was for a week.

- The denial of food was
a very large component

of control for Anne.

It's better to keep
your victims weak

so that they have less
ability to fight back.

- The police doctor
told me the youngest one

suffered from
psychosocial dwarfism.

Because she lived in a
harsh, uncaring environment,

her growth hormones as a young
child were never released.

And when they took the
children out in the raid

in August '87, and they
removed them from the sect,

I think it was
within a week or two

she grew two centimetres.

To me that was clear evidence

that the children
had been maltreated.

One of our tasks was
to visit Lake Eildon,

where the children had
been held in captivity,

to gather evidence.

It was eerie.

This was where some
of the worst crimes

were committed, allegedly,
against the children.

I saw where the children
were secreted under the house

when those evil
police officers came,

who the children were told
would kill you if they saw you.

Anne had said at one stage that
there had been 28 children.

We knew of 14 or 15,
which in my calculations

meant there was around 13, 14
children that, who were they?

Bizarre as it sounds, we needed
to exclude any possibility

that there was anything
other than dogs

buried in those graves.

Thank goodness we
were able to do that.

It was a real interesting raid
'cause it actually gave us

the intelligence and confirmed

what we had been
told by the children.

- Eildon itself was
very regimented,

but at the same time
very unpredictable.

The rules could change
and you didn't know

they'd changed until
you'd broken them.

It made it a lot more dangerous.

You can't save yourself
if you don't know

what you're going to
get into trouble for.

One of the rules is
don't wet your bed.

Of course, that
night I wet my bed.

In the morning I got a belting.

The Auntie would come in and
she'd rip the sheets back.

And if it was wet,
then that was you

in the bathroom
having a belting.

And when it wasn't
you, it was the others.

So there were three or four
beltings in the morning,

and it's quite a
distressing way to wake up.

We used to call the
place, a concentration camp.

And you'd just decide how
you're going to play the system

to get what you need to survive.

If Anne could team us up

and get us against each other,

that was going to work
very well for her.

If relationships
were built among us,

she would purposely
split that up.

A lot of us kids believed

that she could
read our thoughts.

If someone did something wrong

and didn't own up,
everybody got punished.

And so if I
found out who did it,

I would tell on them.

You become very
unpopular with that.

No one likes the class snitch.

- I kept to myself.

Sometimes I'd hide under my bed.

That was my place to be,
I would just sit on my bed

frozen as a statue, just
staring out the window.

I just shut down.

Which is why I uselessly
dreamed of going to Mars

and living there.

There were no humans,
just little creatures

that would be getting
about in an industrial way,

making their civilization work.

- Not all the time,
but just occasionally,

I'd trap my cat in my room.

And I used to throw her around.

And then that
anger would subside

and I'd hold her, and I'd rock,

and I was sobbing, and "I'm
sorry," and "I'm sorry."

And no one ever heard.

No one ever came and
said, "Are you okay?

"What's going on?

"Why are you doing this?"

And it wasn't that I
wanted to hurt the cat.

I wasn't sitting there going,

"Ooh, I'm going
to hurt the cat."

It just exploded.

- I was actually one
of the naughtier ones.

I think that's probably
one of the reasons

why Uncle Bill told me to leave.

And I was just devastated.

They were my family.

I never felt like
I was a part of any

of the groups,
except for Eildon.

I was getting a little
bit rebellious, I think.

For example, cutting
people's car brakes.

Then I started trying
to burn down Dad's house

and trying to burn down
the Sherbrooke Forest.

And still today I really cannot

answer the question
why I did that.

The only thing I can think of
is that I was crying for help.

- Mum was spending an awful
lot of time up in Ferny Creek.

She said she was going
to meetings, and yoga,

and all this sort of thing.

And we really didn't
know what was happening.

I don't know whether because
Dad worked long hours

and he was away a lot whether
Mum just got sick and tired

of being home with the children.

Dad went up to Ferny
Creek quite a few times.

He used to go up and
there and sit and watch

and see if he could sort
of see anything going on.

He said the husbands
that were up there

were really, really angry.

Some of them had placards,

things about Anne
breaking up families.

Dad was angry, but he
was just a bit frightened

that it might come to blows.

It wasn't long after that

that Mum shifted out completely.

Dad had to sell the house

and Mum took her money
and gave it to the cult.

And then Dad had to shift
back in with his mother

because he didn't have enough
money to buy another house.

He was just a broken man.

- I was delving back
into historical matters

and I came across information
that there had been

a television
programme put together

by a journalist by the
name of Phil De Montignie.

- A very few people would talk.

All the information that
I got came from people

who had left the, we called
it a cult, had left the cult.

The survivors told me
their endeavours to leave

were met with being
forcibly being taken

to Newhaven Hospital and
given shock treatment,

which was not necessary.

The only thing that
was wrong with them

was that they were beginning

not to believe in The Family
and wanting to leave it.

They referred to things
like brainwashing,

children who didn't know
who their parents were.

They seemed to all
be locked away.

You just never got to the kids.

There's also been some
concern about children,

baby farm is an expression...

- Well that's just ridiculous.

I think that kind
of nasty allegation,

if somebody will
come out with it

we'll take action against them.

- It's been suggested that drugs
are used within your group.

Can you seen any basis for this?

- Well this of course,
I deny absolutely.

We are respectable citizens,

as I've tried to
indicate to you.

- After it went
to air, The Family

approached Reg Ansett
with a complaint.

Reg used to come every
day, spend half an hour

with the Board,
and then buzz off.

Well on this particular day I
got hauled in to talk to him.

I got told in no uncertain terms

that I had to do a follow up

and it had to be a friendly one.

We felt a strong
enough case was there

for an investigation
to do with child abuse.

We took all of our
material to Dick Hamer,

who was the premier at the time.

Because the judiciary were
involved in The Family,

I got the feeling that if
I took it to the police

it would just disappear,
nothing would happen.

So we took it to the Premier,

and in fact that's
what happened, nothing.

It got swept under the carpet.

- There's no doubt that
there were tentacles

reaching sort of
right to the top.

- In 1956, 0.05% of the
Australian population

were at or had even
been to a university.

And you knew that the people
that were in college with you

were going to become judges
and specialist medical people.

Many very distinguished
Australians

had spent their early
20s in Queen's College,

and he was their Master.

Raynor was involved in a
club in downtown Melbourne,

a club that he was introduced to

by David Syme from
The Age newspaper.

Robert Menzies was a
member of the same club.

Ansett was probably connected.

It was part of the group
that led to the formation

of the Liberal
Party of Australia.

- They definitely did have
friends in high places.

I mean, when you start with
the Queen's College Master,

Raynor Johnson,
being first devotee.

When you look at some
of the associations

with the highest
offices in the state.

Now how influential
those people were

to making sure
these investigations

never went too far,
I can't answer.

But you've always got to wonder.

Today in
the chapel at Queen's College,

former University of
Melbourne medical student,

Dr. Howard Whitaker
married Elizabeth Jean,

younger daughter of
Mr. and Mrs D. Black...

- My father, Howard Whitaker,
wanted to find somebody

who was a medium
who would help him

use LSD and other
hallucinogenic drugs

to treat mentally ill people.

He went to his old
friend, Raynor Johnson,

who knew Anne Hamilton-Byrne

and put the three
of them in touch.

- Most of the sect
members were taken away

to a psychiatric hospital
in Newhaven in Kew,

where they were administered
LSD and psilocybin,

another hallucinogenic drug.

- The owner of Newhaven became
a member of The Family cult,

and that's how Anne then started

to use Newhaven as
a recruiting base.

These professional people
who had gone through

a traumatic experience went
to this private hospital

so that it was discrete, so
it wasn't generally known.

And when they were there,
being administered with LSD,

and then seeing
the figure of Anne

appearing at the
doorway in a white gown

with a bucket of bloody
dry ice behind her,

and then when they've come
out of the LSD experience

they actually believe
that she's Jesus Christ.

LSD was a legal
drug for Newhaven

because it had been authorised

by the Victorian
Health Department.

And of course, those
who administered LSD
were sect members.

- Dr.
- Mackay, did you ever prescribe

or administer LSD or psilocybin
to people in The Family

for so-called
'clearing sessions'?

- Yes, I think
that's fair enough

to say yes to that question.

Depends on what you
define as a 'clearing'.

How would you define it?

- That was a way of
describing looking

into your own psyche to untie
some knots, a little like...

- But these people weren't

strictly speaking
patients, were they?

- Oh, they're all
patients, all patients.

- The drug was given to me by
my father, Howard Whitaker.

Anne was there, and it was
done under her instruction.

A few minutes, maybe half
an hour after it started,

the world just went crazy.

And she whispered to
me, "Who is Jesus?"

And that thought
bounced around my head

and then bounced around
the room for a while.

So I said to her,
"You're Jesus."

And she goes, "That's
right, David, that's right.

"You always knew I was Jesus."

It was confirmed later
by my father, Howard.

He said, "Yeah, that's
right, she's the prophet."

And I was told in
no uncertain terms

that if I told anybody I'd
end up in Newhaven and crazy.

- There was always the threat
of the mental hospital.

She said to one woman,

"It only takes two
psychiatrists to commit you.

"And you'll be there for years

"if that's what I
say should happen."

- Bill Byrne had an
earthmoving business

somewhere in the
La Trobe Valley.

He was quite a wealthy man.

And Anne decided that this is
the man that she would marry.

He had four children and a wife.

- May Byrne was a
bit of a fighter

and she didn't just
give up easily.

She didn't take to this
woman taking over her husband

and children too, and
she stood up to it.

Pretty quickly she was
in Newhaven Hospital

and put heavily under
drugs with no knowledge

whether she'd ever get out.

And at one stage Anne went
into the room and she said,

"May, you might as well face
it, he's mine now, not yours."

How was that, kids?

- How was that, kids?

Oh, look at that.

- That's enough, Tim.

- Anne would tell you to
move to a different school,

move to a different country,
marry a different person.

Every time the person did that,

then that reinforced
her power over them.

And I think she got her
kicks directing people.

- There was this
man who had returned

from India called Peter Kibby.

And Anne told him that
he should marry me

and I should marry him.

I did like him and I
fell in love with him.

But I had no idea how
difficult it would be

to live with a man who
had a very bad case

of obsessive
compulsive disorder.

- She looked at me
once and she said,

"Why don't you admit
your marriage is over?

"Why don't you just go home

"and leave a little
note and say it's over?"

And the next thing I knew,
Anne rang up and she said,

"Frances," always
called me Frances,

"your little baby has arrived.

Now jump in a taxi and go off
to the children's hospital

and ask for nurse such and
such, and there he will be."

I went into the ward.

I looked around
at the incubators.

Then I saw him.

And I just fell in love with
that baby at first sight.

I took him home and
I was just so happy.

He was gorgeous.

And as he started growing
up I had no reason

then to think it wasn't legal.

Later on I got worried.

- When a child is born,
delivered by sect doctors,

given to a sect nurse, handed
to a sect social worker,

and then taken straight
out of the hospital

and given to Anne
Hamilton-Byrne,

you then start to
understand the power

that this person had
over so many people.

- It didn't take
me long to realise

that there was something
really, really wrong going on.

And that's when I disassociated
myself from my mother.

I told her that
I could no longer

have anything to do with her,

and not to come
back to the house

because I was really
frightened for my children.

I was terrified
that she would come

and just take the
children and disappear,

and I wouldn't ever
know where they were.

- Les and I were married
at Queen's College in 1960.

Our first daughter was
born four years later.

When she started
school I was worried

that the cult might
try to get hold of her.

I went to the headmaster
at the primary school

and said to him, "Nobody's
to take her out of school

"without you asking me first."

He said, "Well who would?"

I says, "Well, the
people might come

"and say they're
her grandparents,

"or aunties, or something.

"Nobody, nobody's to
take her out of school

"except me or her
own dad, only us."

Because I was scared of them.

I just was.

They were so involved
with these people

that they'd be a
party to anything.

- There was a growing unease.

Things were not as they
should be at Queen's College.

And probably the
Master was to blame

because he was into
all this weird stuff

and had written
these weird books.

It was a strongly
Methodist place,

and institutional religion
began to be worried about him.

There were mumblings
about dismissing him

or maybe even having
a heresy trial.

Raynor saw Anne was a medium,

the sense that
through this person

the spirit world was
addressing him, had called him,

led to a view that meant
that he couldn't be wrong.

And that's really a dangerous
situation to arrive at.

- I met the children
a few years after

I started
investigating the sect.

It took a long time
to convince people

that there was a problem.

You keep a lot of children

in the commune
here, is that right?

No, that's not right at all.

- There's no children here?
- No, no.

- Right, why do the locals
say there's children here?

There's such secrecy around her.

Devotees would do
anything to protect Anne.

So you're up against
a lot of brick walls.

- We just don't want
to speak to you.

There's nothing to talk about.

- Does it concern
you the allegations

former sect members
have been making?

- No, it doesn't
concern me one bit.

- Are you a follower of
Mrs Hamilton-Byrne's?

- I'm a friend of
Mrs Hamilton-Byrne's.

- Do you believe
she's a teacher?

- I believe that she's just

a great friend of
mine, all right?

Now can you leave the property?

- Is she a teacher?

Is she your guru?

- I don't think I have
anything to say, all right?

- Anne would ring up and want
to hear us being disciplined.

This was something that
she wanted to happen

and the aunts were
obeying her rules.

- I always hated my mum.

I was petrified of her.

She was rough and nasty.

Mum was, I hate to say
it, but she was a bitch.

Would you
tell me your full name and

address please?

Elizabeth Jean Whitaker,
Ferny Creek.

- All right, and
your occupation?

- State registered nurse.

- Is that your signature?

No comment.
- Sorry?

- No comment.

- Do you recognise
that document?

It's a photostat
document of an original.

- No comment.

- We had metre long rulers.

This was Elizabeth Whitaker.

And I remember her
one night, it was hot,

she had the fan on for us.

She forgot to turn it off,
thought we'd turned it back on,

and when she woke up it's on,

and demanded to
know who done it,

and then flew into a rage and
just swang that ruler around.

And it collected people on
their ribs, across the head.

I mean, it was just,
she lost the plot.

- She pulled a cane out
and started beating me

around the head
and the shoulders.

So then I got up and I was
trying to cover, protect myself.

And as I moved around
the table, I tripped.

And there was a large pipe
going from floor to ceiling,

and I just curled round
that, and the beating

just kept coming, she
just kept hitting me,

and kept hitting me.

- Did you want to speak
to your solicitor again?

Or try to ring him again?

- I would like to.

- All right, well we'll
make arrangements.

Unfortunately the relationship

between the aunties
and ourselves

was so catastrophic that
I viewed the aunties,

and all adults, as
extremely dangerous people

to stay away from.

- When Anne and Bill were there,

we'd be disciplined
heavily by her and by Bill.

And you remember
absolute terror.

- I was always a daddy's girl.

You know, he was my
knight in shining armour.

But he did awful things.

- I mean, when he lost his
temper and he beat people,

he was savage and
he was horrible.

- Sarah was thrashed.

Excuse me.

Yeah, it was watching her
being belted with a buckle,

being beaten to the point

where she's wriggling
out of her clothes,

hearing her body
smash against the,

across the balustrade.

It was horrendous to know

they had the power to do
that, and would do it.

- What was going on was wrong.

Someone had to do
something about it.

So I jumped out the
window onto the tank,

slid down the tank, and ran down

to the lake and kept running.

I was petrified.

The adrenaline kept me
going until I saw a light.

All I could say to them was,
"Please get me the police."

So they did.

A very nice constable turned up.

He said to me, "What
are you going to do?"

And I said, "I don't care.

"But I will sleep in the gutter

"if you don't do something,

"because I'm not
going back there."

You're Anouree.

- We're going away.
- Anouree.

- We are.
- You can trust us.

- Are we going to go away...
- Great big deep breaths.

You broke Mum and Dad's heart.

- So I'm lying in bed
at the end of that night

thinking through what had
happened through the day.

It's probably when I realised

the prison doors
had opened for good.

How many did you actually adopt?

How many are your
natural children?

There are eight or nine.

You got eight this morning

when we were counting
it out, weren't we?

We never told them
they weren't ours.

At the birth we've got
a doctor who's a sect member,

a midwife that's a sect member.

I'm sure my mum
was coerced to give me up.

- I'm wondering if you've
got any comment to make now

about what happened
to the children.

Shots are
being fired through windows.

Car tyres are being slashed.

There are death threats.

- She would say all we had to do

is just follow what she said,

except that it was never quite
right, or were never enough.

- Millions of dollars went
through Auntie Anne's pockets.

- I know that Muktananda
practised black magic.

That's why Anne was there,
to learn more about it.

There were so
many bizarre stories

about who she was.

I didn't even know

that Auntie Anne
had another name.

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