This is the face behind a cult

The Daily Telegraph/February 10, 2005
By Lisa Davies

This is the guru behind the mysterious religious cult attended by Baxter detention centre victim Cornelia Rau .

Elusive millionaire Ken Dyers was traced as it was revealed a second member of his Kenja group is missing.

The Daily Telegraph has also learned the practices of his "self empowerment" cult, based in Surry Hills, is now under investigation by the police.

Dyers, 83, has refused to comment on claiMs. by Ms. Rau's family that she attended his secretive group at the time she began her slide into schizophrenia.

Tackled outside his $4 million clifftop mansion in Bundeena, he said: "I have already said I do not wish to communicate..."

His message was the same to the distraught family of a Sydney schoolteacher who went missing after joining Kenja.

Richard Leape, who taught at several private girls' schools in Sydney and Wollongong, was being treated for schizophrenia when he was there.

Shortly afterwards, he disappeared and has not been seen for almost 12 years in a case which closely mirrors that of Cornelia Rau.

Ms. Rau, who also suffered mental probleMs., vanished after attending the group, and ended up in Baxter detention centre after being mistaken for an illegal immigrant.

Mr. Leape's sister, Annette, said her brother would now be 49 and his details are posted on the national missing persons' website.

"I felt sick when I saw the article in The Daily Telegraph about that poor girl Cornelia and how she was involved with Kenja because it was so similar to Richard's," she said.

"I'm appalled to read this organisation is still in existance and have grave concerns that there may be many other persons who have had contact and so-called therapies with this organisation, and developed very serious mental illnesses."

She claimed Richard stopped taking his medication after attending the group. Cornelia also refused medication at the time she was with Kenja, said her family.

Ms. Leape said she became worried about her brother in March 1993 and travelled from the Gold Coast to help.

"I found him pacing the street in Surry Hills. He was totally paranoid and irrational, saying Nazis were going to get him," she said.

"He wouldn't even let me stand on the same side of the street let alone give him a hug. He wouldn't let me touch him."

She took him, with the help of local police, to St Vincent's Hospital where he was diagnosed schizophrenic, but he refused care.

"I knew I just had to get him out of Sydney so I tried to take him back to the hotel, with the intention of then getting him on a plane."

But she says her brother told her: "I've been told to sever all ties with my family for the good of all concerned."

When she asked who had told him such nonsense, he replied: "The master."

A short time later Richard jumped out of the taxi and has not been heard from since.

Ms. Leape said she repeatedly asked Kenja for information and help.

"They kept hanging up on me as soon as I mentioned his name," she said.

The same claim was made yesterday by Ms. Rau's family.

Ms. Rau, 39, continues to be treated for mental illness at a Adelaide psychiatric hospital.

The government has announced an inquiry into how she fell between the cracks and ended up in jail.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie yesterday released an edited transcript of an interview with Ms. Rau at the Brisbane Women's Correctional Centre on July 5 last year in which she claimed to be an illegal german immigrant.

Mr. Beattie said Ms. Rau had told officers her real name was Anna Schmidt.