A cult member linked to a child’s death from neglect and abuse was sentenced to a lesser prison term than the cult leader she once feared and obeyed, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.
Deirdre Hart Wilson 39, was sentenced to seven years, while her former leader Winifred Wright received the maximum 11-year sentence allowed under a plea agreement.
The prosecutor said, “Mr. Wright was a bad man, but he was not the devil and he didn’t have supernatural powers. Deirdre Wilson was no more brainwashed than Patty Hearst, John Walker Lindh and the Charles Manson women.”
However, the judge clearly disagreed and stated for the record that Wright was “the dominant malevolent force.”
Dick Anthony, professional cult apologist, claimed he had advised the prosecution.
Hopefully, the taxpayers were not billed too much for Anthony’s advice, which apparently did little to help the prosecution at sentencing.
The judge previously granted Wilson time to be “deprogrammed,” another tacit acknowledgement that he saw her as a victim of cult “brainwashing.”
In her final comments before sentencing the “deprogrammed” cult member said, “I’ve been living as a psychological amputee. I was terrorized into hating my parents, trusting no one…and not respecting the rules of society.”
But as other criminal cult members have learned the hard way, the undue influence of a cult leader might mitigate sentencing, but it will not eliminate punishment.
Deirdre Wilson will have years to consider “the dominant malevolent force” that ultimately put her in prison.
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