John Marshall had a sense of deja vu when he heard that Rebekah Lawrence had jumped naked to her death just days after completing a self-help course.
Eighteen years earlier, Mr Marshall's stepson died during a self-help program run by the creator of Ms Lawrence's course.
"When I first heard about it in the news, I thought, my God," Mr Marshall told The Australian yesterday. "They're identical. They've just changed the dates and the names."
Darren Hughes was 24 when, in 1987, he fell to his death from a 12m-high window during the Breakthrough residential self-help program. In 2005, Lawrence jumped naked to her death from her office window, just two days after completing The Turning Point course.
Hughes's course was run by the Walter Bellin Partnership until 1988. Mr Bellin also created The Turning Point course.
The inquest into Lawrence's death heard last week from Geoffrey Kabealo, the chief executive of People Knowhow, the company behind The Turning Point and Breakthrough courses since 1988. Mr Kabealo said last week that "some 40,000 people have come through the (Turning Point) course and we haven't had any episodes like Rebekah Lawrence".
Mr Kabealo has since denied any knowledge of Hughes's death.
Mr Marshall, a sergeant with Sydney Water Police, said organisers of the course were aware of his stepson's mental problems. Hughes had been in a psychiatric hospital, had had electric shock therapy and was recovering from drug addiction.
Mr Marshall warned one of the organisers that his stepson should not be doing the $1500 course because of his mental health history.
"It's all right," the organiser told him. "He's on a higher plane now."
The woman he spoke to was a volunteer who had taken the course herself but who did not have any professional training.
The inquest into Lawrence's death heard a similar story about the volunteers' training. The 34-year-old called two members of her "service team" the night before she died. The first team member told the inquest he had not expected to receive calls in the middle of the night. The other told Lawrence she was not qualified to answer her questions. Neither had any formal training or qualifications in counselling or psychology.
Mr Marshall said his stepson, a welder and boilermaker, was on medication and "seemed to be getting himself back on track" before starting the Breakthrough course.
It was on the fourth day of the program that Hughes fell 2 1/2 storeys at a guest house in Robertson, in the NSW southern highlands. A policeman told Mr Marshall the group had reacted to Hughes's death "as if nothing had happened".
Mr Marshall said the organisers "took participants' watches away and any personal effects, like photos, that gave them a link to their identities".
"The idea was to disorientate them and reprogram them," he said.
Hughes's parents describe the course when it was run by the Walter Bellin Partnership as "brainwashing" and "a cult".
The inquest into Hughes's death recorded an open verdict, but his mother, Dorothy Marshall, believes the course was to blame.
She said she was horrified to discover "that the same people could do it again".
"They take innocent young people that trust them and they destroy them mentally," she said.
Mr Marshall hopes the inquest into Lawrence's death will ensure courses use qualified practitioners and are properly regulated.
"Otherwise it will happen again," he said.
The inquest into Lawrence's death resumes today.
