Guru Sex Abuse Testimony To BBC – After Years of Silence
Posted by Barry Pittard on June 11, 2007
Click Here for video clip of Mark Roche interview from The Secret Swami, BBC 2, This World, first screened, Thursday 17, 2004.
In the interests of establishing a new life for himself, Mark Roche, who had quit Sai Baba at the beginning of the 90’s, preferred overall not to have contact with either devotees or former devotees.
The issue was very sensitive with him, as is typical with those who have been sexually traumatized and who feel their deepest trust in their spiritual master betrayed (the latter of which is also a severe ordeal in itself, as many former devotees know who have not been sexually abused). In this way, painful and confusing memories are far easier to suppress.
Over the years, international coordinators like the late Glen Meloy, Robert Priddy and me, Barry Pittard, have gone out of our way – trustfully without, at the same time, being somehow wishy-washy – not to pressure witnesses into going public. A great many have decided not to speak out, although some say that given others coming out in an organized way, such as in a law court, they may reconsider. We have put a case for either a) speaking out publicly or, at least, b) providing private documentation, or c) giving moral support to others among former devotees who also give abuse accounts.
Glen Meloy. Historic Figure in Exposing Sai Baba and His Worldwide Cult
In late 2003, Glen Meloy and Mark Roche, who had mostly been out of contact for some years, began dialog via phone and email. But Roche, like many others with survival accounts, wanted to ‘move on’, and was not ready to go public. He had shared his account with almost no-one. An exception was a friend of three decades, Sharon Purcell, who was also closely associated with Walter and Elsie Cowan, Dr Hislop and other original and significant Sai Baba leaders. Looked at with hindsight, a document that Glen Meloy, a dear and trusted friend of the Purcell family for many years, long ago posted on the Internet reveals this in its own way – for the man who is not named there was, in fact, Mark Roche:
“In 1972, Walter Cowan allegedly died in India, and there are many stories alleging that Sai Baba raised him from the dead after he had suffered a heart attack and his orifices had been stuffed with cotton and his body hauled off to the morgue.
Later, Sharon’s long term male friend whom Baba had sexually molested by forcing his penis into the devotee’s mouth and then ejaculating his sperm would tell her that the resurrection stories were not true and that he was an eye witness to what really happened. This person is also known to me and told me the same incidents. The accounts of Cowan’s personal physicians completely contradict the resurrection claims that Dr. Hislop and many others have been making for 29 years in print and in many lectures and retreats around the world”.
See, Sharon Purcell’s Personal Story HERE. My recollection of a beloved friend to many is available in .pdf HERE or in .htm HERE – In Memoriam – Glen Meloy (“Standing up for truth and goodness“). Mrs Purcell’s son Satch (Sathya or Satya) Purcell, who was named by Sai Baba when a babe has written of his experiences when a member of a group of teenagers and young men led by Hal Honig visited Sai Baba in 1993. It is found by going HERE, then clicking on the News tab and selecting entry for 05-22-07.
Hal Honig. Investigators Need To Query Him
A list of 16 questions asked of Hal Honig – about whom, on the basis of documentation that is ready to be sworn to in a court of law by its author - I have filed a report to the FBI via the U.S.A. Embassy in Canberra, Australia, is found in my article Will Sai Baba Keep Hal Honig Smiling? HERE. Strangely – and one may query whether compromisingly – Hal Honig is a member of the Sathya Sai Central Council of the U.S.A., National Executive Commitee for Sai Young Adults, and National Seva (Sanskrit=Service) Coordinator Service Projects (which includes teaching needy youth)
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