Twelve Tribes search: NSW Police look for remains of stillborn babies
NSW Police are continuing to search two properties owned by a controversial Sydney Christian religious sect for the remains of stillborn babies as part of an ongoing investigation.
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Police are continuing to search for human remains at properties at Bigga and Picton in NSW owned by the secretive fundamentalist Christian sect the Twelve Tribes.
NSW Police confirmed that crime scene warrants were executed at the two properties by the Blue Mountains Police area command on Monday.
It is understood they are searching for the remains of stillborn babies.
Police have been investigating the high number of stillbirths within the community, which shuns modern medical care.
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The operation follows a search of the sect’s Picton property in Sydney’s southwest by Strike force Nanegai on February 19.
Detectives from Springwood Police searched the Tribe’s Peppercorn Creek Farm property for six hours, collecting documents and diary entries as evidence.
The Twelve Tribes is a fundamentalist Christian sect known for its harsh discipline of children and medical neglect of members.
It has been the subject of a NSW Police investigation since September 2019.
The sect, a registered religious charity, runs cafes in Sydney and the Blue Mountains and is part of an international network of about 40 Twelve Tribes communities.
Members follow the teachings of Eugene Spriggs, a former carnival showman, whose controversial preachings include that homosexual rights encourages paedophilia, slavery was good for black people and women’s liberation has damaged society.
The group has been in Australia since the 1990s and has about 90 members in communes in Picton, Katoomba and Coledale near Wollongong.
In 2019, as part of a special report by The Sunday Telegraph, ex-members said the ‘high control’ group was rife with abusive practices, from demanding members ‘beat’ children with a thin rod from the age of six-months, to failing to provide access to medical and dental care.
Rosemary Cruzado who spent 14 years in the Twelve Tribes sect, lost a baby during pregnancy and told The Sunday Telegraph she believed it was because she didn’t have the resources to access specialist care.
Ex-members who spoke to the Telegraph said there was a high number of stillbirths in the communities and women’s pre-natal care was inadequate. Members give over all their wealth and assets on joining and have little access to money of their own.
The Twelve Tribes have been dogged by allegations of neglect, child beating and child labour abuses overseas, one of the most high profile cases in Germany 2013, when a documentary showed children in a local branch being beaten so badly, the government removed them.
Or Mathias, who was born and raised in the group and lived at the Picton commune, said children were beaten repeatedly as part of their upbringing, homeschooling was inadequate and children made to work from as young as five in the group’s businesses.
The Tribe’s 300-plus page child-rearing manual demands children who are not unquestioningly obedient be spanked for any breach with a 50cm thin rod, with “training” beginning at six month of age.
While the group states on its website “because we love our children we do spank them”, it has repeatedly denied allegations of child abuse, saying the rod is not used to abuse or harm children, only to “discipline”, but former members we spoke to dispute this.
In Australia, members live communally in accommodation forming part of the Tribes’ property portfolio, including Balmoral House in Katoomba and Peppercorn Creek Farm in Picton, where a large Georgian-style home is under construction.
They spend the bulk of their time working for free in its commercial enterprises.
A registered charity for religious purposes, the Tribe’s seven businesses including the popular Yellow Deli cafe in Katoomba and Common Ground bakery in Picton receive significant tax benefits including GST concession, fringe benefit tax rebate and income tax exemption.
The Twelve Tribe’s Australian holding company, The Community Apostolic Order, lists assets worth $5.64 million. It bought a six-bedroom property at Razorhurst near the Picton farm in 2016 for $1.475 million.