Sydney, Australia - THE Church of Scientology last night denied the Sydney man who was allegedly stabbed to death by his psychotic daughter after refusing her psychiatric drugs was a top recruiter for the church.
A man with the same name as the dead father is listed on the Church of Scientology's "Honor Roll" in the 2002 Impact magazine which glorifies members worldwide for their efforts in "signing more than 20 members to the church" or for donating $US20,000 or more.
The man's daughter, 25, faced Bankstown Local Court yesterday charged with fatally stabbing her father and sister at their Revesby home last Thursday. She is also charged with stabbing her mother, 52.
The girl's parents refused her psychiatric treatment because of their Scientology beliefs, the court heard.
The man is also named on a website, stop-wise.biz, set up by a former Scientologist as a warning to would-be church recruits that the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, known as WISE, is a recruitment vehicle for Scientology.
He is listed in the 2004 WISE business directory, which is reproduced on stop-wise.biz as a caution to those who come in contact with him that his agenda is to "get money for every new Scientology recruit" he converts.
But a Church of Scientology spokeswoman last night said the man had never been an official church recruiter and denied it was the same person.
"I can tell you he was not a recruiter for the church. And I've been part of the church for more than 26 years," Vicki Dunstan said yesterday.
The Church last night released a statement claiming "the accused has never been a member of the Church of Scientology and at no time have we had any contact concerning the accused, her illness or her treatment from her family".
"The Church does not provide medical advice to its parishioners and directs all people to qualified medical doctors for appropriate assistance," the statement said.
Speaking on ABC Radio, Australian Church of Scientology vice-president Cyrus Brooks said the Scientology link to the killings was "a bit of a red herring".
"The woman was actually under the drugs, she was on drugs at the time of the incident. She was also under the care of a psychiatrist ... since January," he said.
"The records show that she was on psychiatric drugs, so to say that it had something to do with us, then I think it's incredibly defamatory and unfair."
A psychiatric report tendered to Bankstown Local Court yesterday said the 25-year-old woman accused of murdering her father and sister in Revesby last Thursday had tried to get help twice last year, but her Scientologist parents had a religious objection to psychiatric intervention.
Mr Brooks went on to argue that modern psychiatry used many methods that were largely "unproven" and psychiatric assumptions - such as chemical imbalances in the brain - simply did not exist.
Almost immediately after Mr Brooks finished his interview, Sydney University psychiatrist Chris Tennant phoned ABC Radio to reject the Scientologist's beliefs.
Saying it was "so sad to hear the flat-earthers getting on the radio", Professor Tennant denied modern psychiatry was largely "unproven", stating the amount of research on mental illness was "as strong" as that for cancer and heart disease.
"It's a tragedy to hear this mumbo jumbo being proselytised by this group," he said.
"The sad thing about this sounds to be that this girl may well have been prescribed some psychiatric treatment but living in a family which had the Scientology attitude there is no way there would have been what we term compliance."
Following Professor Tennant, the president of the Australian Medical Association, Dr Rosanna Capolingua, also discussed the issue, saying if the girl had access to appropriate medical treatment it could have "changed the course of her life".
Reports this morning stated the accused woman's parents had taken her off anti-psychotic medication and instead treated her with non-psychotic medicine imported from the US.
Mr Brooks denied the US medicine had anything to do with Scientology.
He said the church did not give the family any advice on the daughter's situation and had not recommended the US medication she was alleged to have taken.
Mr Brooks said he was not aware of any US medication used for the same purpose.
The woman accused of the double murder is due to appear in court again tomorrow.
The best-known supporter of the anti-psychiatry campaign is actor Tom Cruise who, in 2005, publicly clashed with fellow actor Brooke Shields.
Cruise criticised Shields for using anti-depressants after the birth of her first child.
Rather than drugs, she should have taken vitamins, the Hollywood star claimed.
"You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do," he famously told an interviewer.
Cruise and Shields reconciled over the issue after Cruise visited the actress at her home and made a heartfelt apology.
All was clearly forgiven with the actress in attendance at Cruise's wedding to Katie Holmes last year.
Cruise is understood to have introduced his friend PBL executive chairman James Packer to Scientology.