Sarah Moore

Sarah Moore, formerly known as Sarah Hamilton-Byrne (8 July 1969 – May 2016), was an Australian medical doctor and writer who spent her childhood in The Family, a new religious movement run by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, her adoptive mother. She was instrumental in having the group investigated by the police in Victoria, Australia. She later wrote a book about her experiences in The Family. Early life and education Moore's biological mother was an unmarried teenager who put her daughter up for adoption in 1969. Moore was adopted by Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a charismatic yoga teacher who gathered a number of followers around her who believed that she was the incarnation of Christ. Moore was meant to be one of the "inheritors of the earth" after a holocaust took place. Hamilton-Byrne had many followers who worked in the medical and nursing professions, and who manipulated the adoption process so that 14 children were adopted by her. These children—including Moore—were told that Hamilton-Byrne was their biological mother. Along with the other adopted children, Moore was brought up in houses that were owned by Hamilton-Byrne, who had several properties in various countries (Moore later estimated that Hamilton-Byrne might have been worth $150 million). Moore spent the first four to five years of her life at a house called "Winberra" in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, Victoria. After that, she was moved to "Kai Lama", a group house at Lake Eildon also in Victoria. Life for the children at "Kai Lama" was unremittingly strict and even brutal. Hamilton-Byrne herself was usually not there, so the children were supervised by women from The Family who were known as "aunties". These women disciplined the children by inflicting severe beatings for the most trivial reasons or no reason at all. Another common disciplinary measure was food deprivation. The children lived in fear and were deprived of all love and affection. Despite this, they always hoped for some show of affection from Hamilton-Byrne, whom they believed to be their mother, and who visited "Kai Lama" from time to time. They were also led to believe that the world outside was an evil and dangerous place and that they would end up in the gutter or worse if they ever left The Family.