Ken Dyers

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 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 station there was not established until in 1872.

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 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 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 sentence.

On 28 October 2005, Dyers was charged in Sutherland Local Court with the sexual assault of two 12-year-old girls, alleged to have taken place at Kenja's Surry Hills 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.