A SENIOR Scientologist has been accused of covering up a case of sexual abuse by telling the young victim to lie to the police.
Carmen Rainer says she was coached by Jan Eastgate after revealing she’d been abused by her stepfather when aged between seven and 11-years-old.
At the time, Ms Eastgate was head of the Australian wing of a Scientology commission which campaigns against psychiatry.
She’s now international head of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights International.
Ms Rainer’s mother, Phoebe, says when she learnt of her daughter’s abuse she decided to speak to somebody that could help.
“My first thought was the chaplain in Scientology,” she told ABC TV.
But Ms Rainer says the Sydney church told her she was to blame “because I’d been bad in a past life”.
“I believed them. I was eleven and that’s what I knew, I grew up believing what they believed.”
Ms Rainer said Ms Eastgate told her to lie to police and community services about the abuse, which occurred some 30 years ago.
She was told to tell the police she didn’t want her stepfather to go to jail.
“The church got involved and sent Jan Eastgate over to drill me and tell me what to say to the police and DoCS,” MS Rainer said.
“She kept repeating ‘Just say no’.
“(She said) ‘You can’t tell them … because otherwise you will be taken away from your parents and you’ll never see your family again’.”
Ms Eastgate has denied the allegations, according to ABC TV. She’s labelled them “egregiously false”.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon has called for a judicial inquiry into the Church of Scientology following claims of systematic abuse of members.
The daughter of the president of the church in Australia on Tuesday claimed many children who grew up in the organisation were subjected to physical and emotional abuse.
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