‘Psychic horse-betting scheme’: Ex-New Age acolyte airs astonishing allegations in Hobart court

More shocking allegations have been aired in a Hobart court by a woman who says she fell prey to a “doomsday cult” with a leader who claimed she could cure HIV and “came from the bird tribes”.

Natasha Lakaev arrives at the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Tuesday.

More shocking allegations have been aired in court by a woman who says she fell prey to a “doomsday cult” with a leader who claimed she could cure HIV and was involved in a “psychic horse-betting scheme”.

Sydney resident Carli McConkey is currently in Hobart, fighting a defamation lawsuit brought against her by former northern NSW New Age leader Natasha Lakaev, who now resides in Tasmania.

Ms Lakaev claims Ms McConkey defamed her through her book The Cult Effect, in newspaper articles reproduced within the book, and via social media posts.

Natasha Lakaev arrives at the Supreme Court of Tasmania, Hobart.

The trial was due to begin on Monday, but Ms McConkey argued a number of Ms Lakaev’s claims had already been dealt with in a previous Supreme Court of Queensland case.

On Tuesday, Ms McConkey told the Supreme Court of Tasmania she didn’t want to have the “whole case thrown out” – only the alleged defamatory imputations that she’d already successfully fought off interstate.

Ms McConkey admits she has made numerous allegations against Ms Lakaev, but says all her comments were true and according to her honest opinion, which was based on “fair and based on proper material”.

She is hoping to call eight witnesses – six from interstate and two from Tasmania – during the three-week trial.

Carli McConkey is being sued for defamation by former New Age leader Natasha Lakaev, who now lives in Tasmania.

On Tuesday, Ms McConkey aired a number of the allegations she made against Ms Lakaev in court, including that the former leader of NSW organisation Universal Knowledge “preached the end of the world, an Armageddon situation”.

She said Ms Lakaev claimed she “came from the bird tribes from a different dimension and remembers all of her past lives” and that she had “spirit guides who lived in the sky”.

Ms McConkey said members of the “cult” were driven to a rural location on a bus with the windows blacked out.

She said when they arrived at the location, they were yelled at, made to hand in their mobile phones, made to go hungry, often only given two hours of sleep a night, and forced to parade naked in front of others.

Justice Helen Wood said she’d need to make a ruling about dealing with Ms McConkey’s application to have part of the proceedings struck out, before getting into the bulk of the trial.

After running Universal Knowledge, Ms Lakaev worked as a government-employed psychologist near Surfers Paradise, but is now the proprietor of Geeveston bed and breakfast The Bears Went Over the Mountain.

Ms Lakaev is suing for damages over the claims, and is also fighting for an injunction to stop The Cult Effect from being further sold, or the sections within it concerning her from being further published.

The case continues Wednesday.

Follow @ambervwilson