SCIENTOLOGY INQUIRY Lawyer Attacks Cult

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31942, 20 March 1969, Page 26

SCIENTOLOGY INQUIRY Lawyer Attacks Cult

(New Zealand Press Association

AUCKLAND, March 19. An Auckland lawyer, Mr P. A. Williams, today claimed that Scientologists had tried to “suppress and disconnect” him.

Giving evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into aspects of the cult, he said the threat had been made by a Scientologist that “we’ll get you.” Mr Williams said he first met Scientology some years ago when he was approached by a person who wished to make inquiries about a hearing by a Commission of Inquiry into Scientology in Mel--1 bourne. Mr Williams said it was really a branch of an organisation in Australia which was set up to oppose Scientology. “Some time later 1 issued a writ for another man, but it never came to a head. “It must have been about this time I started getting letters saying I was “suppressive” and was “being disconnected,” said the witness. “It did not worry-me; it seemed childish to me. I was also approached by several inquiry agents who were concerned because they had had dealings with Scientologists." Robert Horsfall, a private inquiry agent, said he had answered an advertisement in the “New Zealand Herald” on February, 1968, for an investigator. He received a reply on plain paper which told him to go to a hotel room in Ponsonby. He said he traced the letter to a Post Office box number registered in the name of Mr John E. Dalholl, of Devonport. Two Men “I went to the hotel and two men told me I would travel in New Zealand and Australia checking on people on a list they would give me. “I was to find out any past convictions of these people, or crimes or whether they had been in debt. They asked if I was prepared to take the job. “I said I would think about

it. They asked if 1 knew who I would be working for and I said I thought it was Scientology. Dalholl was one of the men, and I said I knew who he was.” The witness said he was asked if he would be prepared to incorporate Scientology inquiries into his work. Later, he had found that an agency known as North Island Repossessions, Ltd, had been sold to Scientology. At one stage he had carried out inquiries for Mrs O’Donnell. He had located her son, Noel, in an office in the Queen’s Arcade and waited outside while she went in to speak to him. Cross-examined by Mr G. S. Orr (counsel assisting the commission) the witness said Noel O’Donnell was in the office of Ability Employment Agency, which contained a lot of Scientology literature. Not Investigating

He described seeing his son in Auckland at the Scientology centre after the son had left home.

“He just screamed and screamed and screamed at me,” said the witness. A woman had come out of a room and said: “What are they doing to my baby?” 1 presumed she was talking about Noel. The witness said it had been impossible to talk with his son and he left the centre. Noel had never before in his life screamed at him. Kevin O’Donnell, aged 15, the younger brother of Erin and Noel, said that Erin had tried to introduce him to Scientology when he was 13 years old and suggested he should come to Auckland for processing. They had also suggested this to his younger brother. His mother and father had not known about this. Punishment Recalled

He said that a man called Frank Norman Archer had told him the Scientologists had bought the North Island Repossessions, Ltd. Mr F. H. Haigh (for the Scientology party): Didn't you ■ check his statement?—l was not carrying out an investigation. If evidence is given that it was not bought by Scientology do you dispute it?—No..

Gregory Whiting, aged 18, whose mother, Mary Edith Whiting, also gave evidence, said the only punishment he could recall in the O’Donnell household was when John had received a hiding for being rude to his mother. “There was a darned sight more beltings that went on in my household, and I love mum and dad,” he said. He. said he had gone for an I.Q. test at the Scientology headquarters and had been accredited with an I.Q. of 136. “The woman said I was a million dollar computer adding up one and one,” he said. Noel had always been a pretty good friend of his but when he bumped into him in Queen Street Noel had gone red, hummed and haaed, and then said he had to go. In answer to Mr Haigh, Gregory said he had gone to the Scientology headquarters because he thought it would be of interest to the inquiry and because he wanted to back up his mother.

The next witness, Francis Patrick O’Donnell, said he had hit his daughter Erin, only once in 18 years. “There was no violence in our home, just ordinary chastisement,” he said.

He had screed to his daugh-’ ter’s marriage to Alan Wright but cancelled his permission when he found out Alan was a Scientologist. He had not agreed to his son Noel, leaving home. Before Noel became a Scientologist he was “a real good son."

The defections of his daughter and son had been “a really terrible shock. It's taken us quite a long time to get over it.”