Royal Commission: Witness casts doubts over abuse

By Rachel Browne
Sydney Morning Herald
December 9, 2014

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/royal-commission-witness-casts-doubts-over-abuse-20141209-1237cg.html

The Royal Commission has heard Dr Henry Sztulman at the ashram was distrustful of the children's allegations which were reported to police in 1987.

A long-term resident of a yoga ashram at the centre of a sex abuse inquiry wept as she said she saw no evidence of multiple child rapes despite living in close quarters with the victims and their abuser, the centre's former leader Swami Akhandananda Saraswati✓.

Muktimurti Saraswatiwho has lived at the Satyananda Yoga Ashram at Mangrove Mountain on and off since 1978, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that she could not say whether the allegations were true or false.

Nine witnesses have given the royal commission graphic accounts of horrific physical and sexual abuse committed in the 1970s and 1980s over the past week of the inquiry.

Muktimurti told the commission that evidence before the inquiry had cast suspicion over the ashram, now known as the Mangrove Yoga Ashram.

"If (the claims) are not true then so many people are being hurt by this . . . so many innocent peoples' lives are being affected adversely by the fact the Royal Commission is on," she said.

Muktimurti, who works at the ashram in an administrative role, told the commission that adults were victims of teasing by the former child residents of the 1970s and 80s.

"As a pack they were a bit scary . . . we were powerless to protest," she said.

Akhandananda controlled the ashram and Muktimurti told the commission if she had known about the abuse she would have attempted to intervene.

"I was in no position to protect the children," she said. "If I had known about it I would have tried."

She denied claims that she fetched children and sent them to Akhandananda's room for sex.

"I felt the children had a great deal of freedom in their lives ... they were happy and well cared for," she said.

When asked about compensation for the victims of abuse, Muktimurti told the commission she believed that would imply the current ashram management had "done something wrong".

"None of us in the ashram have anything to do with these dreadful things," she said.

Director of Satyananda Yoga Academy Pty Ltd Atmamuktananda Saraswati told the commission that  Akhandananda continued to run the ashram even after being charged over sexual abuse allegations in 1987.

Dr Henry Sztulman, a qualified general practitioner and ashram resident from 1979 to 1990, told the commission he was initially distrustful of the children's allegations.

He continued to visit the ashram's leader, Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, after he was jailed in 1989 over sexual offences committed against ashram children. The conviction was overturned in 1991.

He told the commission he now believes former child residents were sexually abused by their spiritual leader but denied a claim that he treated one child with morphine for minor ailments.

Dr Sztulman told the commission he did not witness any of the vicious beatings described in evidence and could not recall the children being deprived of food.

"They were fun loving kids who played around," he said.