The controversial Church of Scientology likens modern mental health drugs to torture and lobotomies. The church's opposition to psychiatric drugs became central to a brutal murder case in Sydney on Monday when it was alleged in court that a 25-year-old woman charged with stabbing her father and sister to death and seriously injuring her mother was denied mental health treatment because of her parents' belief in scientology. Bankstown Local Court was told the woman had been diagnosed with a psychotic illness ...

VICTORIA'S Scientology population has almost doubled in a decade, figures reveal. There are 629 Scientologists in Victoria, compared with 324 in 1996. Census data prepared for the Herald Sun shows that Melbourne's Yarra Ranges and Whitehorse areas are the state's Scientology capitals. Australia-wide, there were 2507 Scientologists in 2006, up from 1489 a decade ago. Experts say the religion's popularity is in line with the growth of other alternative religions and has been boosted significantly by Scientology's celebrity links. High-profile Scientologists ...

A Sydney woman accused of fatally stabbing her father, sister and injuring her mother was denied psychiatric treatment by her parents who were Scientologists, a court was told today. The 24-year-old woman, who cannot be named, was diagnosed with a psychotic illness in late 2006 and recommended follow-up treatment at Bankstown Hospital, in Sydney's southwest. Dr Mark Cross, the consultant psychiatrist and clinical director of Liverpool and Fairfield Mental Health Services, said the woman's parents refused this treatment. "She had a ...

A SYDNEY woman charged with murdering her father and sister and seriously injuring her mother was apparently denied psychiatric treatment because of her parents' alleged Scientology beliefs, a court has been told. The 25-year-old woman, who cannot be named, appeared briefly in Bankstown Local Court today charged over the stabbing attacks at her family home in Revesby in Sydney's south-west last Thursday. She made no application for bail because she was unfit to be interviewed, her legal aid lawyer Wade Bloomfield ...

A young woman charged with the stabbing deaths of her father and teenage sister will face court on Monday in Sydney's south-west. The 25-year-old had been under police guard at Liverpool Hospital since the incident in Revesby Heights on Thursday. Police were called to Hydrae Street after reports of an altercation, finding the bodies of a 53-year-old man and 15-year-old girl inside a home. A 52-year-old woman, who was found at a neighbouring house, remained in a serious but stable condition ...

Sydney — An Australian woman accused of murdering her father and sister was apparently denied psychiatric treatment because of her parents' Scientology beliefs, a court heard on Monday. The 25-year-old woman, who cannot be named, appeared briefly in court on Monday to be charged for the stabbing attacks at her family home in a Sydney suburb, the Australian Associated Press reported. She made no application for bail because she was unfit to be interviewed, her lawyer Wade Bloomfield told the court. ...

STABBING victim Kathryn Walicki, 15, loved her sister Linda "with all her heart", a family friend said yesterday. A touching tribute to Kathryn, who was killed along with the girl's father Michael, 52, at their Revesby home on Wednesday, described her as a "beautiful and gorgeous girl" who loved her family above all else. "She loved Linda with all her heart and it upset her like nothing else to see her in her condition," Bethany Derley said. Linda, 25, and Kathryn's ...

IT WAS a picture of suburban harmony on a sunny afternoon: two neighbours, a man and a woman, both mowing their front lawns in a leafy part of Revesby. But in a horrific few minutes, order turned to chaos, leaving two members of a family dead, one seriously injured and another under arrest. As he mowed on Thursday, a man heard trouble next door. Soon his neighbour staggered into his yard with stab wounds to her stomach and back, crying for ...

A woman walked to her neighbour's house in a quiet area of Revesby yesterday afternoon covered in blood and believed to have been stabbed in the chest. The woman had fled a crime scene and was asking her neighbours to call police. Officers arrived at an address on Hydrae Street soon after, about 4pm, and found an unspeakable scene. The woman's husband and teenage daughter had been stabbed to death. Another of the woman's daughters was wandering nearby streets, covered in ...

WITH the Packer wedding over — and guest Tom Cruise embrolied in a "religious" controversy — Scientology is once again on the agenda, writes Jill Singer. SCIENTOLOGY is being talked about again because of certain prominent supporters. Germany is reluctant to have Scientology's most famous adherent, Tom Cruise, play one of its country's greatest heroes. Valkyrie, the planned film, centres on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's heroic role in attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The problem for Cruise is that Germany is ...