Ken Dyers (14 July 1922 – 25 July 2007) was one of two founders of

Kenja Communication Kenja Communication, or simply Kenja, is an Australian company co-founded in 1982 by Ken Dyers and his partner, Jan Hamilton. The word 'Kenja' is derived from the first letters of their names. There are four Kenja centres, in Sydney, Greater Wester ...

. He served with the Australian Army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He founded Kenja with his partner, Jan Hamilton, in 1982. In 1993 he was charged with sexual offences against four young girls, but was found not guilty on ten of the 11 counts, with the remaining conviction overturned in 2002. He was again charged with child sexual assault in 2005. The court case received a temporary stay on the grounds of ill health, but Dyers committed suicide before the case could return to court.

Early life

Dyers was born on 14 July 1922. His father was 54 when he was born. Dyers claimed that his father, Charlie Dyers, was a toddler on Daly Waters station in the Northern Territory where he had become lost in 1872, at the age of three. He further claimed that Charlie was picked up by a drover three years later at the age of six and returned to Daly Waters station, and that he had lived with an Aboriginal tribe in the intervening years. However, there is no record of that event. Daly Waters was named by

John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...

in his third attempt to cross the continent from south to north in 1862. A pastoral map of the area from 1887 shows that there were no pastoral stations operating in the area of Daly Waters at that time, and the

Overland Telegraph The Australian Overland Telegraph Line was a telegraphy system to send messages over long distances using cables and electric signals. It spanned between Darwin, in what is now the Northern Territory of Australia, and Adelaide, the capital o ...

station there was not established until in 1872.

War record

During World War II, Dyers served in the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

as a military policeman with 9th Division Provost Company from his arrival in the Middle East on 25 September 1941 until he embarked for Sydney on 27 January 1943, and again from 30 July 1943 until his return to Sydney on 23 March 1944. His record details a chequered career, and a large amount of time in field hospitals and casualty clearing stations. Dyers served in the 32 Works Company in Australia until he was discharged. He was

court-martial A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...

led three times. In late 1943, he was in jail for five days awaiting trial on three charges, and eventually convicted of "conduct prejudicial to the good order and military discipline". In June 1944, he went absent without leave for 16 days. In April 1945, he was fined for leaving his sentry post, and was fined again in July for misconduct. The record also contains an assessment of his "mental instability" which is rated at 10 per cent on the day he was demobbed in August 1946. In his article examining the inconsistencies between Dyers' claims and verifiable records, ''

Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'' journalist, Robert Wainright, referred to Dyers' wartime biography as exposing a '

Walter Mitty Walter Jackson Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's first short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in ''The New Yorker'' on March 18, 1939, and in book form in '' My World—and Welcome to It'' in 1942. Thurber ...

Complex'.

Scientology

Dyers joined the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a scientology as a business, bu ...

but later left it. In a list published from the 1950s onwards by the organisation, he is listed as an "SP" (a

suppressive person Suppressive Person, often abbreviated SP, is a term used in Scientology to describe the "antisocial personalities" who, according to Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard, make up about 2.5% of the population. A statement on a Church of Scientolog ...

Child sexual assault

In 1993, Dyers was charged with 11 counts of sexual offences against four girls between the ages of 8 and 15, three of whom were sisters. After several trials and appeals, which lasted almost a decade, Dyers was found not guilty of 10 of the charges. He was found guilty of one charge (tried separately) and jailed at

Long Bay Correctional Centre The Long Bay Correctional Complex, commonly called Long Bay, is a correctional facility comprising a heritage-listed maximum and minimum security prison for males and females and a hospital to treat prisoners, psychiatric cases and remandees, loc ...

for six days before being released on bail. An appeal in 2000 failed and, in 2002, the charge was overturned in the

High Court of Australia The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution. The High Court was established fol ...

on the grounds that the trial judge had potentially misdirected the jury. A new trial was ordered but the DPP did not seek a retrial because it determined that Dyers had served his sentenc

On 28 October 2005, Dyers was charged in Sutherland, New South Wales, Sutherland Local Court with the

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

of two 12-year-old girls, alleged to have taken place at Kenja's

Surry Hills Surry Hills is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Surry Hills is immediately south-east of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney. Surry Hills is surroun ...

headquarters in 2001–2002. Dyers was released on bail under the condition that he attend Sutherland Police Station weekly and not attend Kenja premises or events. Dyers applied for a "permanent stay" of the court case on the grounds of ill health. He also applied for and received a variance to his bail conditions to travel to a Kenja function in Melbourne. His application for a permanent stay was rejected, as was a further application to attend a Kenja function in Sydney. He was given a temporary stay for one year on the grounds of mental health. Dyers denied he was guilty of the charges against him, claiming that they were the result of former members trying to destroy him as part of a witch-hunt. His lawyer offered the defence that 13-year-old girls "know how to say no, they get educated in school" and that "there will be contrary medical evidence indicating that Mr Dyers has had erectile dysfunction for almost 15 years". Dyers was contacted by his solicitor on 25 July and informed the NSW Police would interview him again regarding fresh allegations from another young girl. Dyers committed suicide by gunshot to the head on 25 July 2007. Twenty-two charges of sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault had been committed to trial by Magistrate Jaqueline Trad at the time of Dyers' suicide, and he had received a one-year reprieve from attending court on the grounds of mental health. His solicitor had informed him of further charges from a third girl on the day before his suicide.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyers, Ken 1922 births 2007 deaths Suicides by firearm in Australia Australian Scientologists 2007 suicides Australian Army personnel of World War II Australian Army soldiers Child sexual abuse in Australia