Hamish Broome – Ex-Northern Star journalist, Universal Medicine cult informant

The Northern Star promoting Universal Medicine’s top recruiter, Chris James.

Early December 2012, anti free speech front group for the Universal Medicine cult, Real Media Real Change were scheduled to hold a cyberbullying conference at Southern Cross University, except they hadn’t informed their invited speakers of RMRC’s cult backing. Eight of the ten speakers cancelled when informed. Naturally we were seeking media coverage for the event, and a few days out I received a call from Hamish Broome, a reporter from Lismore paper, The Northern Star, saying he was interested in the story. He said he’d never heard of Universal Medicine. I told him my experience of the cult and its sleaze bag leader, Serge Benhayon, and he asked for contact details of other victims, which I didn’t have. I never heard from him again. Over half a year later, after having received a number of baseless legal threats from the cult using my name, I was informed Hamish Broome is the spouse of Sarah Davis, proprietor of Real Media Real Change. Hamish Broome never wrote a story about the conference, never intended to, never declared his conflict of interest to us and in an inexcusable breach of journalistic ethics passed our identities and information from myself and other victims to the cult.

[Update – as of 2019, Hamish Broome is no longer employed by Lismore’s Northern Star]

The Northern Star published an advertorial about the conference and a follow up, both written by another journalist, and neglected to mention it was cult backed and that 8 high profile speakers had cancelled. By the time I was told Broome is Davis’s spouse, it was too late to make a complaint about the article in question to the Australian Press Council, but I submitted one about Hamish Broome’s breaches anyway. The APC has kept those on file, with the half arsed responses from his employer. They only take action on complaints about articles if they are made within 30 days of publication.

When I made the complaint I was unaware Broome had written the article pictured above promoting Benhayon’s business partner and UM’s most successful recruiter, Chris James, who is also founder of the Sound Foundation, UM’s UK charity front. So again I missed the APC deadline. One of UM’s victims who’d communicated with Broome called me out of the blue to tell me Hamish Broome is an idiot, Chris James was holding a recruitment singalong in Lismore, alternative medicine is crap and Broome was giving out my name and number. I don’t know her, or her name and she called me on a blocked number. It would have helped if she’d told me he’d written the article.

Please readers, I don’t have supernatural powers. I can’t read your minds or every corner of the internet. In the end I stumbled across the above article myself while researching cult recruiter and dodgey charity founder, Chris James. If Broome writes any articles promoting Universal Medicine, its front groups or anyone listed on the Naming Names page, please contact me ASAP. Likewise, if anyone else was approached by Broome under a pretence he was writing an article on UM.

Hamish Broome’s lies

Prior to the Real Media Real Change Cyberbullying Conference fiasco, one of the local Lords of Form approached Northern Star editor, David Kirkpatrick to see if the paper would run stories about Universal Medicine. Kirkpatrick was reluctant seeing the cult had threatened the paper with legal action for writing that Serge claims to be able to cure cancer, and the paper had erroneously printed that Benhayon and his sons practice Esoteric Breast Massage. The paper should have checked their facts before going to press. Curtis Benhayon only practices Uterus Massage, and while Serge tells everyone he’s only performed ‘simulated’ Breast massage on his captive partner, we’ve shown the photographic evidence of his hands on chests and bottoms, and how he goes for the genitals of sexual abuse victims as well.

To our local friend’s surprise, Hamish Broome called him telling him he was interested in the story. Our friend asked if he knew anyone in the cult and he said he didn’t. We wouldn’t have spoken to him if he did. Our friend talked with him at length about his family’s experience of UM damage and then passed on my contact details. Hamish Broome called me around 8:30 pm on an evening before the conference and I spoke with him for most of an hour. He began the conversation asking about the conference. I asked if he was going to run a story. He said he was looking into it. I told him the conference was backed by the Universal Medicine cult and asked if he knew who they were. He said he’d never heard of them. I found it difficult to believe a journalist in Lismore hadn’t heard of them and asked him several times through the conversation if he was sure. At that point, I wasn’t aware the Northern Star office is in Goonellabah, the same suburb as the UM clinic. I don’t remember pointing out that UM had made legal threats to the Northern Star, but by then I thought Hamish was the most dimwitted journalist I’ve ever encountered.

An email exchange with the Lord of Form went like this:

Venus: Hi, do you think Heath will run a story? He had zero clue about UM when he called me Monday night…

LOF: Hamish? seems like it. He is emailing me a bit and asking for my story.
He talked to me at length last week so he might be dumb or playing dumb to get info.

During my conversation with Hamish, he asked why I thought Sarah Davis, head of Real Media Real Change, was associated with the cult. I told him she’d written a six thousand word apologism on the Words on Serge Benhayon blog citing her name, her location and her credentials. She later took her surname down from the post, after telling journalists her association with Universal Medicine had nothing to do with the cyberbullying conference. Except that Serge Benhayon was present at a pre conference dinner and managed to extract some free legal advice from the one defamation lawyer who showed up to speak. I told Broome I’d taken a screenshot of her name on the blog, so she couldn’t hide. At no point did Hamish Broome mention Davis is his wife.

I would never speak with a journalist connected with UM, and especially not the spouse of an anti free speech cult front that I’m exposing.

For a reminder of who Sarah Davis is, we see her on stage in the Lie Lie Lie sisters cult hymn performance, and in the Esoteric Women’s Health promotional video where she tells us how beauty-full she is, except for her hostility to transparency and criticism, and her ugly lies. She’s also one of the organizers for this weekend’s exercise in sexist cult indoctrination, the Mens Health Conference, ‘Starting the Conversation’ to be held in Brisbane and Lennox Head.

The irritating conversation with Broome wore on and I told him about the ovarian reading tried on me by Serge Benhayon, and the grim excorcistic mind fuck that went on at the Sacred Esoteric healing workshop. I told him I’d submitted complaints to the NSW HCCC. Hamish mumbled and said ‘gee, really’ a lot. Again I asked if he was sure he didn’t know anyone associated with UM and I directed him to the Naming Names page on my Accountability blog. He looked at it while on the phone with me and said he knew one person, Elizabeth Dalton. He feigned surprise to see her there and said she works for Lismore hospital. I pointed out Elizabeth Dalton is one of the grubby Esoteric Breast Massagers. Hamish Broome asked me names and contact details of other victims. I told him I didn’t have any and he’d need to ask the Lord of Form.

I never heard from him again, but we sent the Northern Star editors an early version of our press kit a couple of months later.

When I received the phone call telling me Hamish Broome was giving out my contact details, I immediately complained to the Northern Star editor, David Kirkpatrick, and received this response.

I have spoken to Hamish and he is adamant that he did NOT hand out your contact details

He did mention you first name in discussion with the person who may have contacted you, but not your surname.

This person acted like she already knew who you were

I have reiterated to Hamish that he should not discuss any details about contacts for a story and if asked for contact details should simply take a message and pass it on.

I apologise if you have been harassed in any way

Broome should not have mentioned my name at all, let alone offer my phone number, which the cult have used, ironically when the Mystic dentist, Rachel Hall, tried to have me charged with stalking.

A couple of weeks after making that initial complaint about Broome for giving out my details, I was told he’s the spouse of Sarah Davis.

Journalistic ethics are only for the Astral cult

Esoteric journalists don’t bother with pranic matters like ethics. The Australian Press Council ethical standards are found on the APC website. When I found out Hamish Broome is Sarah Davis’ spouse, I submitted a complaint with the APC citing breaches of the General Principles of:

1. Accurate, fair and balanced reporting

5. Honest and fair investigation; preservation of confidences

and the Statement of Privacy Principles:

1. Collection of personal information

2. Use and disclosure of personal information

4. Security of personal information

5. Anonymity of sources

All journalists know these principles and are required to abide by them. Without such principles, the profession of journalism is compromised. If journalists don’t abide by such ethics, the exposure of corruption is impossible.

Cult informant Hamish Broome

Following my conversation with Broome, the legal threats began rolling out to journalists and organizations who have corresponded with me, including an agency of volunteers who support victims of cults and their loved ones. My name appeared on those legal complaints, and those that were made to WordPress when the cult tried to shut down my blogs with false copyright claims. It’s my understanding victims of UM who were in contact with Broome have been served with legal and other threats.

And the other day, cult psychologist, Marianna Masiorski made a complaint of professional misconduct and ‘criminality’ about me to AHPRA for making official complaints and criticizing her public promotions of the sleazy Benhayon enterprise. None of which are breaches of my professional code, or crimes. She did however mention my press kit.

[  ] declares herself to be the author of the main ‘hate’ blog in a defamatory ‘press kit’ that these two individuals supply to the press, government bodies and politicians. 

Defamatory? The ‘press kit’ went out about 9 months ago and my ‘hate’ blog has been running over a year, but the cult has never served us with a defamation action. Never. None of the content is false. That’s why.

So where did you get the press kit Marianna? Who do you know from the press, government bodies and politics who would make that available to a cult struck numbskull like you?

Hamish Broome.

Broome’s recalcitrance and the Northern Star’s feeble response

The Lord of Form was incensed and emailed Broome when he found out he’s in a long term relationship with Davis.

Broome responded:

Hi [   ],

I was just trying to get both sides of the story.

I think both sides have a point but your point has probably been made louder, thanks to plenty of journos getting eager over a “cult” scoop.

 Good luck

Hamish

Hamish

At the start of the call I asked you why you were calling. You said you were interested in doing a story. I was surprised because David had already been in contact regarding legal threats from UM. I asked if you were involved or knew anyone, and you emphatically told me no. That is called lying. I have asked everyone I have spoken to the same question, and I recall asking you. In hindsight, your reactions were suspicious and I should have been a little more guarded, by I didn’t suspect you would be using your position at the Northern Star to trick me into giving you info for your cult.

I know that info has been passed onto other members.

Very unethical. Very cult like. And I am very pissed off. I see you have cc’d David on this. I will speak with him Monday. But in any case I am escalating it as a formal complaint to your newspaper and also to the relevant associations.

As an aside, I cannot believe you can absorb that information I gave you- and  have evidence of- and still participate with the group. Mind boggling and quite sickening.

[  ]

 In response to that [  ] I would have to say I never lied to you.

 Yes I was thinking of writing a story, and no – I never denied I was “involved”. 

But that’s not what editor, David Kirkpatrick’s response was. I didn’t waste time with Hamish the cadet reporter, I took the complaint to Kirkpatrick and the Press Council. Kirkpatrick took over two months to come up with this response saying Broome had declared his conflict of interest to his editors, and was not permitted to work on UM related stories. 

I have now concluded an internal review of your complaints about one of our journalists, Hamish Broome.

I sought some advice from Peter Owen, a senior training officer with APN and head of the cadet program.

Peter has also served on the Press Council.

He reviewed your emails and details of your complaints and he and I agree that there is no direct evidence to suggest Hamish has done anything wrong.

Hamish denies he passed on your contact details to his wife, Universal Medicine or anyone else

He also denies that he was ever asked whether had had any association with Universal Medicine or somehow kept this a secret.

While we are taking no further action against Hamish at this time, I would point out the following:

Hamish has never actually written a story about Universal Medicine.

He declared his interest in UM to me and the Chief of Staff.

On a separate occasion he began making inquiries about bullying seminar, but was pulled of that story and asked not to make any further calls.

Hamish has been reminded on several occasions of his obligations under the Journalists’ Code of Ethics particularly in regards to your complaints.

He has had a letter noting the nature of your complaints placed on his personnel file.

Hamish Broome has written a promotion of Universal Medicine’s top recruiter, though, as was pointed out to the editor. He’s also named on the Real Media Real Change website as part of their team.

Hamish Broome is a professional journalist with an interest in quality, accountable journalism of the highest integrity… He believes the independence of new media gives an opportunity for equal power in expression and accessibility for all – and with the ‘race to the bottom’ of traditional print media it is essential to establish and maintain professional standards of absolute accountability in online and digital media. Real Media Real Change site

Hamish Broome cannot be trusted to abide by journalistic ethics. He should be sacked.

My response to Kirkpatrick:

That’s simply not good enough. Your explanation doesn’t add up.

If Hamish declared his conflict of interest to you, why did he call us? Why was he talking to us about Universal Medicine at all?

If he wasn’t writing a story, why was he talking to us?

Why did he ask for contact details of victims? Why did he maintain contact with [  ]?

Why did he not declare his conflict of interest to us? Journalistic ethics would require him to disclose his conflict whether we asked or not. And we asked.

David, you’ve said: ‘He also denies that he was ever asked whether had had any association with Universal Medicine or somehow kept this a secret.’
So what is his position? You haven’t made that clear. Did he tell us he was Sarah Davis’ partner or not? … Did he tell us he has connections with UM or not? 

Please explain this to us.

Why wouldn’t we ask him if he knew of UM? How do we begin a conversation about UM with a journalist without asking whether they know of the group or not? UM is a multi-million dollar organization that has been established for over ten years in the same suburb as the Northern Star. Goonellabah isn’t that big, David.

Why would we talk with a journalist who is the disclosed spouse of the proprietor of a cult front?

Also, what do you make of these remarks to [ ] from Hamish?

‘I was just trying to get both sides of the story.

I think both sides have a point but your point has probably been made louder, thanks to plenty of journos getting eager over a “cult” scoop.’

Again, is that the story he’s ‘never actually written’? After declaring his conflict of interest to his editors?

His response:

You have my answer

I really don’t see any point in going over every last line or detail

He told the Lord of Form it was Hamish’s word against ours.

Consequences for sell out journalists

Northern Star editor, David Kirkpatrick is afraid to write stories about Universal Medicine because the paper might be sued, but he’ll employ a cult connected journalist, who admits to pursuing us for information having informed senior editorial staff of his conflict of interest. Why protect a two bit cadet reporter? Are Kirkpatrick and the APN afraid to sack the lowlife piece of detritus?

Hamish Broome placed us at risk. 

Does David Kirkpatrick, who is afraid of cult retaliation, know what Universal Medicine’s followers are capable of? Universal Medicine is a multi million dollar death and molestation cult whose zealous followers deny clear photographic evidence of molestation, send their daughters to stay in Serge Benhayon’s home knowing his current wife moved into his home at age 13, and haul their  young daughters on stage to sing hymns to a sexual predator as part of a YouTube promotional video.

The Deputy Executive Director of the Press Council told me they were unable to proceed with the complaint seeing it was made outside the 30 day time frame, but added:

Should you have any concern regarding future articles published by Mr Broome, to which these Standards may apply, please don’t hesitate to bring these to our attention.

If anyone else was approached similarly by him under a pretence that he was interested in writing a story, please contact us. We are particularly interested in Broome’s email correspondence, and so is a certain high level journalist with the most powerful media outlet in the country.

Regardless of the paper’s pathetic response, Hamish Broome’s name is dirt. I also made a complaint to the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, who referred me to the Press Council. Hamish Broome is not a member of the MEAA but they’ve kept the complaint on file. I’ve now whinged to journalists from four media organizations nationwide about him, and my good friend, a senior investigative journalist told me she’d never keep a journalist of Broome’s ilk on her staff. His name is flagged.

We hope Broome likes his job at the Northern Star, because he’s unlikely to get a job as a journalist anywhere else, unless he and Sarah want to move to Cunnamulla. And if he does move on as journalist, we’ll make sure this incident follows wherever he goes.

Update: Broome scrubbed these details from another front ‘Co-Creative’ where he’s seen working with Curtis Benhayon and the UM audio-visual team.

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