Australia: Hamilton-Byrne's 'The Family' — children acquired by fraud for a woman who told them she was Christ

Proceedings

1. 1994-09-26 · guilty plea to making a false declaration; fined

   County Court of Victoria, Melbourne. After a Victoria Police investigation (Operation Forest) and a 1987 raid on the group's property at Lake Eildon, Anne and William Hamilton-Byrne were arrested by the FBI in New York in June 1993 and extradited. On 26 September 1994 both pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria to making a false declaration — falsely registering three unrelated children as their own triplets — and were fined A$5,000 each. Conspiracy and perjury charges were dropped. No child-abuse charge was ever brought against either of them. Four other members were separately convicted of obtaining welfare payments by fraud, offences unconnected to the children's treatment.

2. 2021-03-29 · court-supervised civil settlement — no admission or finding of liability

   Supreme Court of Victoria (Creese v Life For All Creatures Ltd & Ors, S CI 2017 03007). A group proceeding brought on behalf of children of Anne Hamilton-Byrne who alleged personal injury from cruel and inhumane treatment between 1968 and 1987 settled for A$600,000 inclusive of costs, approved by the Supreme Court of Victoria in March 2021. The court-filed settlement notice recites the plaintiffs' allegations — cruel and inhumane treatment, assaults, physical or sexual abuse, and breach of a duty of care arising from the children's relationship of dependence — but the defendants made no admission and the court made no findings of fact.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• children obtained through false birth registrations and deed polls recording them as the Hamilton-Byrnes' natural children
• the children told she was both their mother and a reincarnation of Christ
• uniform dyed-blonde hair and total isolation at Kai Lama on Lake Eildon ('Uptop')
• no external recourse available to children raised entirely inside the group