Russian investigators have arrested the former psychiatrist leader of more than 100 people who held "uncontrolled" sex orgies in southern Russia, media reported on Thursday.

Members of the so-called Self Improvement Foundation "were encouraged with psychological pressure to have uncontrolled sexual relations with each other, including in the presence of minors", investigators said in a statement.

The group's leader was a psychiatrist who had worked for several years at a hospital in the southern city of Orenburg, RIA Novosti news agency reported.

Russian tabloids published a photograph of a burly, bearded man, named as Vyacheslav Vesnin.

News website Lifenews Ru posted a video confiscated by investigators that shows a girl performing a striptease on stage in front of a young man.

Another video showed young children reciting obscene verses while adults laugh and clap.

The members did not eat meat or drink alcohol and some spent long periods living at the leader's house, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported, citing investigators.

A total of 108 members were detained during a session at a camp site, the head of Orenburg's anti-extremism police squad, Bazargalei Yermekov, told Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Police searched the leader's three-storey brick mansion and confiscated more than 500 photographs, Yermekov said. The group's records listed a total of 150 members, including 12 minors.

Investigators have opened criminal charges into immoral acts and organising a group that infringed on people's rights and mental health.

Source: "Psychiatrist arrested over Russian sex orgy cult," Herald Sun, July 8, 2010.

 

IF YOUR PSYCHOLOGIST, PSYCHIATRIST OR OTHER MENTAL HEALTH PRACTITIONER HAS ENGAGED IN ANY THREATENING, VIOLENT OR SEXUAL BEHAVIOR WITH YOU, REPORT IT TO THE POLICE AND TO CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, WHO CAN ASSIST YOU IN FILING REPORTS, COMPLAINTS, ETC.  PLEASE CONTACT STEVE WAGNER, DIRECTOR OF LITIGATION AT [email protected]