Ministry of God cult: Inside accused murder accessory Alexander Wilon’s religious sect
A former cult leader accused of covering up a girl’s murder in the 1980s claimed to possess divine powers and told followers to God’s word or be punished.
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A former cult leader accused of covering up the murder of a little girl in the 1980s while leading the Ministry of God sect claimed to possess divine powers and said his followers should follow the word of God or be punished.
Alexander Wilon, 70, was leading the religious sect under the name Alfio Nicolosi from his property at Porter’s Retreat near Oberon in 1987 when police allege two-year-old Tillie Craig was bashed to death by her mother Ellen Craig, who was one of Wilon’s followers.
Craig was arrested in November 2021 in Palmerston North City, New Zealand, pursuant to an Australian arrest warrant, and she has since been refused bail to appear at an extradition hearing on March 17, 2022.
Police allege Wilon disposed of young Tillie’s body at the remote farmhouse property, 40km from Oberon. Despite an extensive underwater search, her body has never been found.
Wilon was in November charged with accessory after the fact to murder and misconduct with regard to a corpse.
He appeared at Bathurst Local Court on November 17, 2021, where he was granted bail and is due to appear at the same court on March 16, 2022.
Several other women and children, including Tillie and her mother, were living at the property as part of the sect at the time of the alleged murder.
Tillie’s father Gerard Stanhope has previously spoken out about his battle for custody of Tillie after losing her and her mother to the religious sect.
Wilon, who his followers knew as “papa”, would preach the word of God and claim to pass on divine messages from a messenger known as “Monet”, according to a 1988 documentary on the ABC.
“At times he’s made me act with compassion to someone and to someone else he has made me rebuke those people,” he told the ABC at the time.
He would instruct his followers, or “disciples” to adhere strictly to the word of God and threaten them with punishment if they disobeyed.
Followers would meet four times a day to pray and sing in a room known as “Papa’s Room”, where he would summon messages from the spirit.
Footage of the meetings show Wilon bowing his head in prayer and sitting in a circle with half a dozen women.
“Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name. Make known among the nations what he has done,” he says.
One follower told the ABC at the time she had “never met anyone who has such a love of god and is so close to the father.”
Neighbours have told The Daily Telegraph they knew little about the cult and its members, who lived lives shielded from public view.
“It was not until media and police investigations that neighbours were aware that there was something out of the ordinary occurring at the property,” one neighbour said.
“They lived in the Porters Retreat area without the community knowing anyone that lived in the isolated home.”
Wilon has been working as the managing director of a bomb and firearms detection training business known as Safecity since 2000.
As part of this business, he purports to train people to detect “suspicious X-ray images” and claims to have delivered the training to national and international airports, police, law enforcement, military and government departments.
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