Melbourne doctor formed cult before using god-like status to rape members’ children
Share:
Pradeep Dissanayake forced members to give him money and send hourly messages of praise before he sexually abused two girls, court of appeal says. A Melbourne skin doctor established a Buddhist-Christian cult and used his “godlike status” to rape his followers’ children while forcing them to give him money and send hourly text messages of praise.
Pradeep Dissanayake, the founder of the Windsor-based Melbourne Medical Skin Clinic, returned from a trip to Sri Lanka in 2016 and began to preach, eventually establishing a sect that blended Buddhism and Christianity, according to a Victorian court of appeal decision published earlier this month.
As the leader of the sect, Dissanayake exerted significant control over his followers. He told them where they should live, how they should raise their children, and demanded hourly text messages praising him, according to the court’s judgment. His followers were forced to seek permission for everything they did, including showering and leaving the home, and were made to kneel when he entered their homes.
Men were instructed to stay together at one house and women at another. Parents had to “relinquish the parenting of their own biological children and parent their co-habitants’ children instead”. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email.
The doctor assumed a “godlike status”, the court decision said, which gave him access to and control over two 12-year-old girls, who were daughters of his followers. He was found to have sexually abused both repeatedly over a period of months, including during a December 2021 trip to Bunnings to purchase supplies to help members of the sect paint a Melton home. On other occasions, the abuse occurred in hotel rooms and at a car park.
