This is part 10 in a series. For the rest of the series, go here.
Note: this article mentions suicide.
Former Esther House resident Mandy arrived at the rehab facility when she was only 14. She had already tried to commit suicide by then and had drug problems linked to an event that had left her traumatised. Mandy stayed on and off and finally “broke free” when she was 16.
In her view, Mandy suffered the consequences for resisting what she was being told to do.
“I was trying to run away. I wouldn’t pray. I wouldn’t believe in God,” she said.
“The ones that the program helped did all the religious things and went in there with that belief.
“To me looking back at it, I would say it was a cult. The religion was so forced onto you and you had to read the Bible. You had to do the all-night prayers. It was never a choice. You had to change faith and the ones that did do better were the ones that went along with [founder] Patricia Lavater’s rules.”
Mandy alleges she was slapped across the face to “snap her out of it” when she acted a certain way.
“I was told I was possessed and it was the devil that was pushing me to act like that,” she says.
Like other former residents, Mandy alleges she would be locked in a secure room to control her behaviour or for punishment, and that she was forcibly medicated by staff.
Mandy also alleges that she was forced to walk on a broken foot without the aid of crutches.
“They would pray and pray and I’d be crying. And they said I’d be healed. And then after a week, she [Lavater] removed the crutches altogether and declared that I was magically healed by God and tried to use me as an example to the other girls.”
Mandy remembers in detail the “exorcisms” she was subjected to, aimed at correcting her behaviour.
“Every Tuesday night we had to go to this prayer thing. Sometimes it would last all night. Sometimes it was a few hours. Patricia would get all the girls and she would put me in the middle and they would pray and pray and pray. Sometimes if I tried to leave she would get the girls to hold me down and say it was the devil that was coming out of me and things like that.
“They would speak in tongues while someone read aloud from the Bible. Sometimes I would just scream so they would fricking let me go. Because if you did, they were like, ‘Oh yeah, the devil’s coming out.’
“I also remember pretending that I believed in the religion so they would leave me alone. Because otherwise they would keep doing this stuff until you said you believed.”
On a vulnerable 15-year-old girl with psychiatric problems, the abuse had an impact. Mandy says she came to believe she did have a demon inside her and that the devil was pushing her to do things.
“As an adult, a mum with two girls — and now fully recovered from what happened — I look back and I think, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s not okay, you don’t treat people like that.’
“I realise now that what Esther did to me was emotional, physical and psychological abuse.
“I would like to see Esther’s victims acknowledged.”
Esther Foundation founder, Patricia Lavater, provided a statement to Crikey in which she “deeply” apologised for “any hurt or trauma” caused to any individuals and offered to address issues in “an appropriate mediated setting”.
For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue is on 1300 22 4636. In an emergency, call 000.
If you have any information about this story you would like to pass on, please contact David Hardaker via dhardaker@protonmail.com.
