CULT MUMS

AFTER FINDING 'FAITH', THESE MOTHERS BECAME MONSTERS

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Despite considering herself the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, Anne Hamilton-Byrne was anything but.

The Melbourne woman was the evil matriarch of a cult known as 'The Family', which operated in the Victorian capital from the mid-1960s until the 1980s. Blending drug-taking with mysticism and Christianity, Hamilton-Byrne convinced her followers to give her everything – from their money and their homes, to even their children. Along with her husband Bill Byrne, she took up to 28 children through illegal means, either through fake adoptions or by convincing members to hand over their biological children.

She imprisoned them at a rural property at Lake Eildon, VIC, where she made them dress alike and had their hair dyed blonde. The group was later accused of beating, starving, drugging and brainwashing the children. Hamilton-Byrne claimed she was raising them as part of a “master race” that would save the world.