‘Reincarnation of Jesus Christ’: Defamation trial waged by ex-New Age leader Natasha Lakaev begins

‘Reincarnation of Jesus Christ’: A defamation trial waged in Hobart by a former New Age leader has hit a roadblock, with her ex-follower attempting to have the proceedings struck out.

Geeveston B&B, The Bears Went Over the Mountain.

A defamation trial waged in Hobart by a former New Age leader who now lives in Tasmania has hit a roadblock, with her former follower attempting to have the proceedings struck out.

A judge-only trial was due to begin in the Supreme Court of Tasmania on Monday between Natasha Lakaev, the former leader of northern NSW organisation Universal Knowledge, and former follower Carli McConkey, who Ms Lakaev says defamed her.

But Ms McConkey argued before Justice Helen Wood that the case should not proceed, as it had already been brought and determined in another jurisdiction.

Ms Lakaev, a registered clinical psychologist, previously sued Ms McConkey over articles published in the Age and the Gold Coast Bulletin in 2010.

But the claim was settled on the first day of an expected lengthy trial in the Supreme Court of Queensland in October 2014, with judgment in favour of the two newspapers, a newspaper journalist, Fairfax Digital, Ms McConkey and two others.

In the current case, Ms Lakaev is suing Ms McConkey for two articles published in the Sunday Age during 2010 that she reproduced in her book, The Cult Effect.

On Monday, Ms McConkey argued the content of the Queensland case was “of same or like matter”.

She said the Sunday Age article said she lost “13 years of my life and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a New Age cult” and that she’d worked as a “virtual slave” in Ms Lakaev’s “cult”.

Universal Knowledge site in New South Wales.

Ms McConkey said the article revealed she’d become sterile at 35 after she was “persuaded to undergo a tubal ligation after being led to believe I was an unfit mother to my three sons”.

She said Ms Lakaev had claimed she was the queen of Atlantis, a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and one of 12 on the “Intergalactic Council of the Universe”.

Ms McConkey said Ms Lakaev’s defamation claims were similar in both proceedings, including imputations that she’d held Ms McConkey “captive” and “brainwashed” her, that she’d exploited and manipulated others “in order to satisfy her need for adulation”, and that she was “responsible for damaging the lives of scores of people”.

Barrister Daniel Zeeman, acting for Ms Lakaev, opposed Ms McConkey’s application, saying the two cases were “different or substantially different”.

Justice Wood directed Ms McConkey, who is representing herself in court, to compare the publications to determine which passages were the same or similar.

“It seems to me that if you are correct, then this is a roadblock to these proceedings, in part or in full,” she said.

Ms Lakaev now lives in Tasmania and is the proprietor of Geeveston bed and breakfast, The Bears Went Over the Mountain.

The case continues Tuesday.

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