Sect minister who has admitted child sex abuse was allowed to continue home meetings

September 25, 2024: | RNZ | Amy Easton | Members of an underground sect probed by the FBI want to know how a man with a reputation for being a sexual predator was allowed to continue with the group’s home meetings. The former minister of the cult – known as the Two by…

Inside NZ’s most Notorious Cults w/ Anke Richter

August 16, 2024: | Rova | Duncan Garner | From Centrepoint to Gloriavale, some of our most notorious cults will be in the spotlight at ‘Decult’ – Australasia’s first cult awareness conference. It is taking place in Christchurch later this year – the brainchild of investigative journalist and author Anke Richter. Experts and…

Cults and control: Why do people fall for the tricks of cult recruiters?

June 22, 2024: | The Press | Philip Mathews | Janja Lalich lives in northern California, across the bay from San Francisco. An ideal spot, you might think, for a specialist on cults. This is where some of the worst flourished. There was Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple and, further down the coast, Charles Manson’s Family and…

New Zealand cults hit the world stage

June 12, 2024: | The Press | Phillip Matthews | Is New Zealand a little bit culty? That question will be asked at the International Cultic Studies Association conference in Barcelona, Spain, next month. That may not be how New Zealand likes to see itself on the world stage. Yet it indicates how…

Cult Chat Wins At 2024 NZ Radio And Podcast Awards

June 7, 2024: | Scoop Business | Plains FM 96.9 | Cult Chat has won Best Community Access Programme for 2024 at the NZ Radio and Podcast Awards announced in Auckland last night (6 June 2024). Christchurch-based co-host Dr. Caroline Ansley runs  the Centrepoint Restoration Project and along with Lindy Jacomb from Olive Leaf Network…

Cult documentary will help provide resources for survivors

May 12, 2024: | Sunday Star Times | Joanne Naish | Donations for a documentary on Australasia’s first cult awareness conference in Christchurch this year have reached more than half of the directors’ target in just two days. Christchurch film-makers Robyn Jordaan and Caleb MacDonald are crowdfunding to create a documentary about the Decult…

‘The Truth’ 2×2 religious sect leaders tried for three years to get member to admit guilt – victim

April 26, 2024: | Newshub| | RNZ | Amy Williams | Warning: This story discusses details of sexual abuse A New Zealand woman who as a child was sexually abused by a member of a secretive sect under investigation by the FBI says the religious group’s leaders spent three years trying to get the man…

‘The Truth’ 2×2 religious sect confirms police investigation

April 26, 2024: | RNZ | Amy Williams | Former members of a secretive sect under investigation by the FBI for historical child sexual abuse warn it is a highly controlling and insular group with many unwritten rules. The religious group has about 2500 members and 60 ministers in New Zealand, meets in…

Christchurch to host Australasia’s first cult awareness conference

November 20, 2023: Joanne Naish | The Press| International cult experts and survivors will gather to raise awareness of cults and the harm they cause in Christchurch next year. Christchurch journalist and author of Cult Trip: Inside the World of Coercion and Control Anke Richter is organising Decult, a conference due to take…