Yoga master 'beat and groomed young girls' ..., Daily Mail (UK) (December 2, 2014)

Yoga master 'beat and groomed young girls' before telling them to have sex with him 'to enhance their spiritual growth', inquiry told

Parents handed over legal guardianship of their children to a yoga master who beat and sexually exploited the young girls, an inquiry has been told.

The child sexual abuse royal commission sitting in Sydney heard some parents living at the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain in NSW in the 1980s signed over legal guardianship of their children to Swami Akhandananda and his partner Shishy.

Some witnesses will give evidence they were beaten violently by both the swami and Shishy, who will give evidence at the hearing.

The Mangrove ashram was founded in November 1974 with Akhandananda as director and spiritual leader. He was 22 and Shishy was 16.

In 1976 residents began to move into the ashram - some with children.

Peggy Dwyer, SC for the royal commission, said in her opening statement that children were sexually and physically abused at the ashram.

She said some parents endorsed pension cheques payable to them in favour of the swami who was considered to be a spiritual, god-like man who had attained enlightenment.

The ashram was a non-profit organisation which within a decade became a wealthy organisation with centres all over Australia.

Akhandananda managed the finances with some help from others. Parents were separated from their children when they were sent to set up other ashrams around the country.

Ms Dwyer said evidence from 11 former residents will show a pattern of "sexual grooming by Akhandananda, which began when the children reached or were approaching puberty".

The grooming was followed by sexual abuse, including oral sex and sexual intercourse, by the time they reached the age of 14 or 15.

"It is anticipated that the former child residents will give evidence that they were told by Akhandananda that he needed to break down their physical barriers and that engaging in sexual activity with him was for their own spiritual growth," she said on Tuesday.

The commission would hear that the abuse often occurred in the hut that Akhandananda shared with Shishy.

Akhandananda was charged, convicted and jailed in the late 1980s for indecently assaulting four girls between the ages of 14 and 16.

Shishy gave evidence at his court case.

He spent 14 months in prison but the convictions were overturned on appeal by the High Court in 1991. He was released from jail and died six years later in 1997.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Sexual Abuse hearing continues in Sydney.