Australia: breatharian teachers convicted of manslaughter after a 21-day 'initiation' fast killed their student

Proceedings

1. Date in cited record · jury verdict and sentence

   Queensland Supreme Court, Australia. Jim Vadim Pesnak and his wife Eugenia Pesnak were convicted of manslaughter after Lani Morris, a student they were directly supervising through a 21-day breatharian 'initiation' (seven days without food or water, followed by fourteen days of restricted liquids only), died of stroke and renal failure from severe dehydration. As Morris became paralysed and unable to speak, Jim Pesnak inserted a feeding tube himself instead of summoning emergency help; she died shortly after. The jury convicted within approximately three hours. Jim Pesnak was sentenced to six years' imprisonment and Eugenia Pesnak to two years. Jasmuheen, the breatharian teacher whose published method the Pesnaks were following, was not charged.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• direct in-person supervision of a multi-week fast the teachers had designed and were charging to run
• doctrine that hunger, thirst and physical collapse were signs of spiritual progress to be pushed through rather than medical emergencies
• the teacher's decision to insert a feeding tube himself rather than call an ambulance when the student could no longer speak or move