Letters written by Dr. John Hislop

Dr John Hislop, who was for long head of Sathya Sai Baba's organization in USA and (strangely) 'the Americas', wrote most revealing and embarrassing letters in 1980-81. These came into the hands of Timothy Conway Ph.D., from his immediate predecessor the former president of the San Francisco Sathya Sai Centre. (See Barry Pittard's discussion concerning the provenance of these letters: Timothy Conway Ph.D – On ‘The Hislop Letters’,which contains further detailed links).

The letters only went to leaders in the U.S. Sathya Sai Organization, their aim being to limit the damage that would arise from testimony sent to him by the mother of an American boy, Terry Lee Scott. Hislop tried to cover up these letters by asking all recipients to destroy them after reading. This was a cover-up of how Terry Scott plus some of his friends were reportedly sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba while attending his college in Prashanthi Nilayam.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) received the letters from Timothy Conway (see his sworn affidavit on the delivery of these letters and also as to their authenticity). Subsequently, the BBC investigated many of the sexual abuse allegations – contacting numerous of the accusers - during a long period before the final cut of its documentary 'The Secret Swami' in 2004 on BBC 2 and BBC World.

Hislop and the appointed directors or prominent VIPs of the Sathya Sai Baba Council of America, including Dr Michael Goldstein, Dr William Harvey, Robert Bozzani, Phyllis Krystal, Richard Bayer, Don Heath, John Prendergast, Robert and Rita Bruce and others all knew about the allegations and how responsible the accusers were. They all remained silent towards most devotees at the time.

 

Terry Scott left the Sai College (Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh) in 1980.  Having complained that was sexually molested by Sathya Sai Baba, his college authorities claimed that he was “expelled in disgrace”, without any further explanation of the reasons. Yet this occurred immediately upon his accusing Sathya Sai Baba of sexual abuse.

John Hislop's wilful neglect of his duty of care and mandatory reporting

Mrs. Payne (born Diana Scott) wrote to Dr. John Hislop, who sent a copy of her letter to the top US Sathya Sai Organization leaders. She later sent her letter to other leaders so that Hislop could not simply silence her. Dr. Hislop had not responded to her letter, not to her, but had instead wrote to directors of the Sathya Sai Society strongly denying the possibility that the accusations could be genuine. He had taken the precautionary step of asking the accused (Sai Baba) if they had any substance. As if an accused paedophile would readily admit to his actions! Hislop neglected all duty of care and started his dishonest manipulations of the situation before replying to her. He had already cast doubts on her truthfulness and even on the son’s psychological condition!. He characterises such allegations with words like ‘cunning’ and ‘violence’, ‘deadly weapons’. Surely this is an unbalanced emotional response of a devotee in shock and denial rather than a challenged leader’s proper reaction… which would be to investigate the claims properly without making up his mind beforehand, as Hislop so evidently did. 

Mr. Jayaram, who had been a well-known promoter of Sathya Sai baba in Malaysia, took up the allegations of Mrs Payne’s son and investigated them. He has since assured Robert Priddy that the report of Terry Lee Scott of being sexually abused by Sathya Sai Baba – and the supporting evidence of Malaysian students who also reported sexual abuse in their own cases - caused a furore among some Malasian devotees. Terry Scott had also told of his experiences at group meetings in California at the time and received hate mail from devotees. Mr. Jayaram went to India especially to speak with involved students at the Sai colleges. He discovered the allegations had a sound basis and so left Sathya Sai Baba and raised the alarm. of which Robert Priddy has been informed at length. He has written:
"An American boy, Terry Scott, who was a contemporary of these Malaysian students, left the Sai College together with the rest of the Malaysians." Since the Malaysian students who were molested by Sai Baba wished to move on, their testimonies were not made public by name.”

In an e-mail (1 July 2001) Glen Meloy wrote about Mrs. Payne, who he knew:

"Terrence Payne is the ex husband of Diana, and whose son was the first western student in his college. That boy was asked by Baba to perform oral sex and his mother caused quite a stir back in the 80s when Hislop was in charge. That is part of the scenario involving Hislop confronting baba about his alleged homosexuality etc. You might want to reread Diana's letter that was posted." (Originally posted at http://www.myfreeoffice.com/saibabaexposed - now defunct)

Widespread Indian judicial corruption disallowed action

Mrs. Payne could not pursue the matter legally in India where the local police (Puttaparthi) are completely in league with the Sai Baba ashram authorities, as a CBI investigation proved in 1993 when the police destroyed murder evidence and concocted a totally untrue account of events. Further a large section of the judiciary is under the thumb of Sathya Sai Baba, who has dozens of judges from the High Court and Supreme Court as his foot-kissing devotees! The first top Supreme Court judge, Bhagwati, has been a director on the Sathya Sai Central Trust for decades. Add to that how Sai Baba was protected from prosecution in the 1993 cold-blooded murders incidents by the Home Minister S.B. Chavan who stopped the CBI investigation in its tracks – and how he was defended in writing but without a shred of investigatory evidence by the Prime Minister Vajpayee and the Supreme Court judge Bhagwati (also long-standing devotees) and one can see how extremely unlikely it is that any sexual abuse victims to pursue justice in this connection. The justice system in India is widely famed for being under all criticism for delays of years and decades, where often only money or connections can ensure cases get into court before the death of the parties involved, if then.