AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
December 2, 2014
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
Children as young as three were repeatedly molested by the former leader of Australia’s oldest ashram and threatened with death if they ever disclosed the crimes, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard.
The opening day of an inquiry into the Satyananda Yoga Ashram and its former leader in Australia, Swami Akhandananda Saraswati, heard 11 children were abused while living at the ashram in the 1970s and 1980s.
Nine of the former child residents will give evidence to the royal commission in its first hearing into a faith-based organisation outside the church.
Counsel assisting the commission Peggy Dwyer told the hearing that sexual activity was discouraged in the movement but, despite this, its founder Satyananda Saraswati and his disciple Akhandananda molested their followers.
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