New age leader Natasha Lakaev claimed libel against former member

Supreme Court Justice Helen Wood is to decide on an application by Ms McConkey questioning whether she can be sued for published material that was already subject to a similar defamation case in Queensland in 2014.

If Justice Wood decides in favour of Ms McConkey, counsel for Ms Lakaev, Daniel Zeeman, indicated he will seek leave to proceed with the defamation claim against her anyway.

Carli McConkey is representing herself in the Supreme Court in Hobart against a claim that she defamed the former leader of the Universal Knowledge organisation, Natasha Lakaev, in a book published in 2017.

Last week, the court heard Ms McConkey's claim that she was pressured to undergo sterilisation while a member of Ms Lakaev's organisation in the early 2000s.

Ms McConkey described Universal Knowledge as a "doomsday cult", and that its members were convinced the world would end in 2012, and that the leader, Ms Lakaev, was Jesus Christ reborn, and a member of the "Intergalactic Council of the Universe".

The case resumes on July 6.

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