Cult linked to Cornelia

Herald Sun/February 8, 2005
By Lisa Davies

The mentally ill woman wrongly locked in Baxter detention centre slid into schizophrenia while she was a member of a cult.

Former Qantas flight attendant Cornelia Rau, 39, became an initiate of a group which practices self-empowerment. The name she used when arrested by police -- Anne Schmidt -- is believed to be a composite of the names of two other cult members.

Last night, her sister Christine Rau said: "It was while she was with them (the cult) that she started getting sick.

"We couldn't figure out how she got so ill."

Yesterday, as Prime Minister John Howard ordered an inquiry into the mix-up, the Herald Sun identified the cult as the Kenja Communications group, run by Ken Dyers.

In 1998, Cornelia spent a few months with the group, which runs its classes in secrecy behind steel doors in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.

Christine Rau said her sister's health deteriorated during that time.

Attempts to contact Mr. Dyers and the Kenja group yesterday were met with silence.

The Herald Sun was told the name Anne Schmidt was a composite of the names of her two Kenja "buddies" -- Anna Schouten and Caroline Schmidt.

When Cornelia went missing in March last year, after checking herself out of a Manly psychiatric clinic, Christine contacted Kenja for information. But she said they would not answer her questions.

"They seemed very secretive. They wouldn't talk to me," she said.

Access to Kenja's second floor offices was blocked by a steel security door yesterday.

"We have nothing to say," a man said from behind the door.

Repeated attempts to contact Kenja by phone were rebuffed.

Ken Dyers, 83, also refused to comment.

Mr. Dyers was convicted in 1999 of sexually abusing girls as young as 11 who attended his "energy conversion" sessions, but was cleared after a High Court appeal in 2002.

Mr. Dyers claimed he was framed by former members motivated by revenge and hate.

Last night, a former Kenja initiate said he knew Cornelia and saw her downward spiral.

"She went a bit funny at the time she was in there," he said.

Kenja claims on its website to be a "non-religious, non-political personal communication training organisation, designed to help the individual achieve his/her goals and discover his/her purpose".

It also has offices in Melbourne.

Mr. Rau, who was born in Germany, was released from the Baxter centre in South Australia on Friday after several months in detention.

Before that she spent six months in a Brisbane jail after being found in a deluded state by Aborigines in north Queensland.

She told authorities she was German and her name was Anna Schmidt.

She is now in an Adelaide hospital.