Kenja Communication:
Campaign to clear cult leader
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
Aug. 11, 2007
Alex Tibbitts
www.smh.com.au
The truth - according to Jan Hamilton - will cost you.
For $50 you can hear the widow of cult leader Ken Dyers - who committed suicide
while facing 22 charges of sexual assault against two girls who were 12 at the
time - talk tonight about “the true story about Ken Dyers and the attacks on our
civil liberties”.
It’s another part of the campaign by Kenja - the “personal development centre”
Dyers founded with Ms Hamilton - to clear the deceased leader’s name and portray
his accusers as “unscrupulous, criminal-minded individuals”.
Two weeks ago Kenja placed an advertisement in Sydney papers, including the
Herald, proclaiming Dyers’ innocence.
The campaign has angered at least one of the parents of the alleged victims.
“They are saying my daughter is a liar outside of the court system,” he said.
“They are saying that the other girls are liars. They’ve tried to do that
through the press and now they’re trying to build up a campaign.”
The lecture is part of Kenja’s “Act for Change” campaign, which seems to be
trying to make Dyers a martyr to civil liberties.
Its website states: “The tragic death of Ken Dyers is an example of what can
happen when a person is consistently denied justice.”
But by taking his own life, Dyers denied his alleged victims their day in court
and any opportunity for justice.
The ad for the lecture that ran in the Herald this week was headed “In Australia
we are guilty till proven innocent”, but Ms Hamilton said it was not an attack
on the legal system, it was just about the perceived presumption of guilt in the
media.
The next line of the ad says “Imprisonment before trial on flimsy evidence”,
although Ms Hamilton admitted her husband was never imprisoned.
The Act for Change website states Dyers was a victim of a campaign “despite
successfully disproving all allegations in court”.
He did not disprove any allegation in court.
The allegations that made it to court in 1993 were not proved “beyond reasonable
doubt” yet the website claims “the jury accepted the plaintiffs were liars”.
Juries, though, pass judgements on the accused - not plaintiffs - and the jury
did find Dyers guilty of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl - which was
later overthrown by the High Court.
Ms Hamilton said Dyers did not have to face trial for the 2005 charges on
grounds of ill health even though he was refused a permanent stay of
proceedings.
Ms Hamilton said she was campaigning because “nowhere did Ken have the
opportunity to clear his name”. But Dyers twice asked to be declared medically
unfit so he would not have to stand trial for the 2005 charges.
“It would have killed him,” Ms Hamilton said.
The day Dyers committed suicide police telephoned him about more allegations of
sexual assault.
Ms Hamilton said all the allegations were a conspiracy involving a former MP
Stephen Mutch, money-grubbing cult busters, former Kenja members, their
children, drug addicts, suicides, expensive divorce proceedings, money
laundering, assault charges, blackmail, corrupt police and the media.
The Act for Change website says: “These laws are being abused by unscrupulous,
criminal-minded individuals who have attacked public figures and people in
responsible positions. These unscrupulous people are obsessed with their own
personal agenda and self gain.”
When asked what the children involved had to gain from making the allegations,
Ms Hamilton repeated her stories of conspiracies before suggesting “the love of
a father”.
She admitted she had not pursued any of her allegations through the courts or a
complaints process.
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