As a toddler Ben was handed over to a stranger. She was an evil cult leader.

A platinum blonde bob. A charismatic smile. To most, this faded family portrait captures a seemingly innocent moment from childhood.

The reality of the photo couldn't be further from the truth.

Taken on a sunny day in Victoria, the grainy snap captures Ben Shenton, a survivor of Australia's most notorious cult, "The Family".

It doesn't capture the barbed wire of the secluded "Kai Lama" compound on the shores of Lake Eildon. Nor does it capture the sad truth of Ben's stolen childhood.

When Ben Shenton was 18-months-old, his mother handed him over to Anne Hamilton-Byrne, a woman who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ.

Anne Hamilton-Byrne claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Image: ABC.

Hamilton-Byrne isn't what most people imagine when they think of an evil cult leader. She was beautiful and well-spoken; a seemingly nurturing woman.

Something much darker lurked beneath that carefully crafted exterior.

"She had her own major issues in life, a broken family, her own mental issues. She was a control freak," Ben told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations podcast.

"(She) very much looked to create a world where she controlled everything."

Ben said Hamilton-Byrne manipulated his mother into giving him up by convincing her that "only she could give me the best life possible".

He believes the cult leader was a sociopath or psychopath.

"She had this ability to be able to be so warm, so loving, so caring, and yet at the same time so manipulative," he said.

Ben Shenton grew up in the doomsday cult 'The Family' thinking Anne Hamilton-Byrne was his mother. Image: Supplied.

The making of 'The Family' — and 'the evil genius of her'.

The doomsday cult began in the 1960s, when the world faced existential threats like nuclear warfare, the Vietnam War and the spread of communism.

This atmosphere provided fertile ground for alternative belief systems.

Ben lived on the remote property and was raised alongside dozens of other children for 13 years.

"We were her children. We were different ages. We'd line up von Trapp style (like) The Sound of Music, which we'd watch, dressed in outfits that matched and that was just what we were asked to do," he said.

"You look back on that and you see it's choreographed.

"It crafted a belief that she had these children, which she didn't. We were all either adopted or handed over."

Ben Shenton (front right) as a child in The Family. Image: Supplied.

Life at Kai Lama initially appeared healthy from the outside. It featured yoga, exercise, vegetarian meals, meditation and education.

But the children were controlled through a combination of fear, starvation, physical abuse and drugs such as LSD.

Ben said one of the horrific punishments he endured was essentially water torture.

"We were all lined up. We were belted. Our head held under the bucket of water, interrogated," he said.

"Held there until you thought you were suffocating, brought back out again.

"Horrendous experience. It caused nightmares.

"These things shape your personality."

Listen to the full episode below. Post continues afterwards.

One of Hamilton-Byrne's most effective tactics was preventing the children from forming bonds, which created a "toxic" atmosphere of distrust.

Ben said he became compliant and often told on those who broke rules to avoid punishment.

"This was the evil genius of her. She understood that if she could separate us, isolate us, make it so that we couldn't build relationships with one another and punish us, then she could control us," he said.

Ben likened these manipulation and torture strategies to domestic abuse.

"Anyone who's lived under domestic violence will know the living with fear, the walking on eggshells, the currying favour of those in authority, or the absolute rejection of them, the hatred of them, the love-hate relationship.

"It's domestic abuse on steroids," he said.

The day of rescue.

In August 1987, a 15-year-old Ben was doing his scheduled hatha yoga meditation when uniformed police officers stormed into the room to save the children.

Initially reluctant to leave what had been his entire world, Ben grabbed a balustrade, but then he had a moment of clarity: "I think I got this epiphanal moment, realising this is the ticket out of here. So I just, I let go, and I went with them."

That night marked his first taste of freedom.

As he lay in a bunk bed for the first time in his life, wearing new pyjamas, with brushed teeth and a proper meal in his belly, he vividly recalled the moment he decided not to return.

"I realised then I (didn't) have to do this anymore, I'm free. I don't need to go back," he said. "That, to me, was when I shut the door."

Ben as a teenager. Image: Supplied.

Adjusting to life outside the cult was extraordinarily difficult for Ben, who struggled to connect with others his age.

Despite the abuse inflicted on him and other members of the cult, Hamilton-Byrne was only ever convicted of fraud and slapped with fines.

In June 2019, she died in a Melbourne nursing home at the age of 98.

"What Anne did was evil. She used the name of Christ to give herself validity. She used a belief system," Ben said.

"Justice was not done."

It's been a long road, but Ben has come to terms with his trauma and built a life for himself.

He reconnected with his mother, despite the fact the cult leader set her up as someone to be hated.

Nearly four decades have passed since his rescue and Ben is a proud husband and father to two "well-adjusted" children. He has written a book called 'Life Behind the Wire' and raises awareness about the impact of cult manipulation.

Feature image: Supplied.