Drug use, sexual and physical abuse of children were hallmarks of The Family sect

Starvation, beatings and forced drug use were some of the “horrible things” The Family’s child victims say they experienced, with explosive new claims against the notorious Victorian sect to be aired tonight.

Allegations of sexual assaults against children forced to take mind-altering drugs will be made against a notorious Victorian sect tonight.

At least one of the child victims of the evil cult known as The Family committed suicide and others attempted to end their lives.

An ABC documentary will also claim “powerful figures” used their positions to stop or hinder investigations into the sect led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

LIFE INSIDE THE FAMILY CULT EXPOSED

HEAD OF THE FAMILY CULT SUED BY VICTIMS

SECRET DIARY OF THE FAMILY CULT CO-FOUNDER

Cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

Leanne, one of the child victims.

Some of the children recruited into Anne Hamilton-Byrne’s cult known as The Family.

Former Detective Senior Sergeant Peter Spence, who headed the Victoria Police taskforce set up to examine the sect, is quoted as saying the force wasn’t serious about investigating The Family.

Commenting on the allegations about powerful people stopping and hindering investigations he said: “There is no doubt that there were tentacles reaching sort of right to the top.”

Hamilton-Byrne, who is now 98 and living in a Melbourne nursing home, initiated at least 28 children into the cult in the 1970s and 80s, stealing some of them through adoption scams and getting others by brainwashing adult sect members.

The documentary will also reveal:

FORMER County Court Judge Carolyn Douglas, who prosecuted Hamilton-Byrne over fraud charges, described the cult leader as “having an enormous hold on people and it was admiration, adulation and fear. It’s a little like an organised crime syndicate, they would never ever give evidence against her or make a statement against her”.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne is now 98 and living in a Melbourne nursing home.

HAMILTON-BYRNE’S granddaughter Rebecca, a former sect member, is deeply ashamed of her grandmother because of “the havoc and the cruelty, she’s hurt so many people”.

THE sect was made up of professional people, who, according to former Victoria Police detective Lex De Man, “worshipped Anne Hamilton-Byrne as Jesus Christ reincarnated in the female form”.

UNDER the influence of LSD, Hamilton-Byrne had a vision that she had to get access to many children from birth as they would be needed to repopulate the world as either World War III or a natural disaster was about to cause millions of deaths.

Former Melbourne University master of Queen’s College Dr Raynor Johnson co-founded the notorious cult The Family with Anne Hamilton-Byrne

Former County Court judge Carolyn Douglas prosecuted cult leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne.

CLAIMS by former sect member Leanne that she and the other children were starved, beaten and had “all sorts of horrible things” done to them by Hamilton-Byrne and other adult sect followers.

SECT co-founder and former Melbourne University master of Queen’s College Dr Raynor Johnson met Hamilton-Byrne in the 1960s and they jointly formed the Great White Brotherhood that became known as The Family. He wrote in his diary that “from that date onwards there was but little doubt in my mind that I had met my master”.

— The ABC’s three-part documentary The Cult of The Family starts Tuesday night at 8.30pm

[e-mail]

Originally published as Drug use, sexual and physical abuse of children were hallmarks of The Family sect