Sex 'healing' cult suicide

CULT leader and alleged child sex offender Kenneth Emmanual Dyers has been found shot dead.

Police were called to a house in Crammond Ave, Bundenna, yesterday after reports of gun shots.

Officers discovered the 85-year-old's body, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Police last night said they were not treating the death as suspicious and were preparing a report for the coroner.

The WW2 veteran - and founder of controversial cult movement Kenja - was facing trial on 22 charges of child sexual assault and indecent assault.

Members of the cult have told of his grubby "nude healing sessions" and of the cult's links "refugee" Cornelia Rau, who was a member shortly before developing mental illness.

Dyers' was due to face trail in the Downing Centre District Court on May 3, but was deemed unfit for trial and a mental assessment was ordered.

Dyers was arrested in August 2005 and charged with the aggravated sexual assault and aggravated incident assault of two 12-year-old girls.

The charges followed an investigation by Strike Force Caroola, set up in May 2005, by detectives from the Child Protection and Sex Crimes Unit.

Kenja - set up by Dyers and his partner Jan Hamilton - is a non-religious organisation that preaches the power of one-to-one mediation called "energy conversions".

Dyers faced a committal hearing before Downing Centre Local Court last May, which heard the offences against the two girls were alleged to have occurred while the girls attended "energy conversion sessions" with Dyers at Kenja's offices in Surry Hills, between December 2001 and July 2002.

Dyers maintained his innocence throughout, accusing former Kenja members of making up the allegations.

In a fawning statement, Kenja Communications last night described Dyers' death as a "tragic day for Australia and for the human spirit".

"There has been a relentless attack on Ken and Kenja for over 20 years," the statement said.

"This attack was launched by spurious, so-called anti-cult groups, some politicians and individuals with criminal intentions, who have fabricated false allegations of child sexual abuse against him.

"The police were continuing to hound and harass Mr Dyers, working with disaffected and hostile people, who wanted to destroy Ken to hide their own misdeeds.

"It is clear that Ken decided he could not, in his state of health, continue to fight any longer."