Ex-'cult' priest who 'sexually assaulted members' held 'disturbing services'
A former priest accused of sexual offences against 13 women in his congregation led an evangelical movement that held "extremely disturbing" services featuring "young women behaving in what looked like a controlled manner," a court has heard.
Christopher Brain, 68, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was leader of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), part of the Church of England, in Sheffield between 1986 and 1995. He has been charged with one count of rape and 36 counts of indecent assault between 1981 and 1995, all of which he denies. The prosecution allege NOS became a cult where Brain abused his position to sexually assault a "staggering number" of women followers, exerting control over their lives and ostracising them from friends and family.
Inner London Crown Court has heard a "homebase team" was set up to "care for" Brain – referred to as "the Lycra Lovelies" or "the Lycra Nuns" – with witnesses reporting seeing the defendant surrounded by attractive women in lingerie at his home looking after his needs. Mark Stibbe was a curate of St Thomas's Church in Sheffield when NOS was holding services there. Giving evidence on Wednesday, he said there was "concern" about the direction NOS was taking and discussion about Brain and what was going on at his home.
He told the court: "I remember one church administrator or finance officer at St Thomas's who was like an old school army man and he brought up the negative optics, potentially anyway, of scantily clad, lycra-wearing pretty young women as he put it coming to and from Chris Brain's house on a regular basis to perform 'domestic duties'."
The witness said the man got a "roasting" for asking whether there was "anything untoward" about it and that others at St Thomas's felt that if the church's vicar, Robert Warren, was not going to intervene then junior clergy had no business doing so. He said it did not appear to him that Reverend Warren was able to control Brain.
He also recalled there was "a lot of controversy" over the Greenbelt Christian arts festival "into which NOS had poured many hours and many thousands of pounds." Dr Stibbe moved to another church in 1993 but attended a NOS service once it had moved to a new location in Ponds Forge after a member of his congregation expressed concerns to him about it.
Of his visit, he said: "My view at the time was that it was extremely disturbing and that my friend who had said it was disturbing was correct. The reason I found it disturbing is that the things that had been reported from the Greenbelt Festival about girls gyrating in scantily clad costume in a worship context, that is what I was seeing in this context."
Asked if he thought the women were willing participants, he told jurors: "This is the thing that concerns me. I couldn't tell. In a progressive culture… it seemed to me to be a graphic, vivid contradiction to have young women behaving in what looked like a controlled manner."
Earlier the court heard from Rev Warren who said allegations that emerged about Brain's abuse "came as a total shock," although he admitted he had a sense of "cult-like elements" emerging in NOS. Asked while giving evidence over a video link to explain what kinds of behaviour he saw, he said: "Just a sort of controlling of people and a focus on Chris Brain almost as a sort of guru."
He added: "I think it was a sense of deference to Chris Brain that if you asked people about the service they would always say, well what Chris thinks is or what Chris wants is. With the other services I wouldn't get that sort of response."
The reverend said if NOS had continued to hold services at St Thomas's he expects that behaviour would have become clearer and he would have done something about it. He told the court that NOS had 400 regular worshippers when it left St Thomas's and at one stage there was a mass confirmation service of 93 members of NOS – "the largest group that we had ever confirmed in one church."
He agreed that NOS was exciting and innovative for the Church of England and that it could engage young people in ways the church was until then failing to do, incorporating "rave" culture and music as part of worship. "Some people who were at that service would come from 20 or 30 miles away because they found the service so inspiring," he said.
The witness also told jurors that NOS functioned independently financially from St Thomas's, and that NOS contributed to payments to Brain as a "lay leader" and then as a priest once he was ordained.
The trial continues.
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The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
Woman says she ‘froze' during alleged rape by former Nine O'Clock Service priest
A woman said she 'froze' after she was allegedly pushed down and raped by a former priest accused of sexual offences against 13 women in his congregation, a court heard. Christopher Brain, 68, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was leader of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), part of the Church of England, in Sheffield between 1986 and 1995. Brain denies one count of rape and 36 counts of indecent assault between 1981 and 1995. The prosecution allege NOS became a cult where Brain abused his position to sexually assault a 'staggering number' of women followers, exerting control over their lives and ostracising them from friends and family. Inner London Crown Court has heard a 'homebase team' was set up to 'care for' Brain – referred to as 'the Lycra Lovelies' or 'the Lycra Nuns' – with witnesses reporting seeing the defendant surrounded by attractive women in lingerie at his home looking after his needs. On Friday, a recorded video interview was played to the court of a woman who has alleged Brain raped and indecently assaulted her. In the interview with police, she said Brain wanted her to go around to 'keep him company' and she said it was early evening. 'It was cold so it wasn't the middle of summer I don't think,' she said. 'I went around straight away, he got me to sit in the front room. 'He persuaded me to have a whiskey. I had a small amount, probably about a single.' After some chatting Brain went upstairs and came down in a suit which was a 'murky greeny browny colour', the woman said, adding that she thought it was 'ugly' but did not say that. She said he then went back upstairs and got changed and came back down and then wanted to show her 'a futon thing in his room'. The woman said she sat down fully clothed, and added she had probably taken her shoes off downstairs at the door. She said 'he sat down beside me and after a short while he pushed me down' so he was 'on top of me'. The woman added that he then started to rape her. She said she was 'putting my head from side to side' and 'saying no', adding: 'And I couldn't get him off me.' The woman said afterwards he made her have a bath downstairs. She said she considered going to the police afterwards but thought 'it would be really traumatic' and she thought she did not want her family to know. Asked by the interviewing officer on the recording if Brain tried to kiss her, the woman replied: 'He had on previous occasions, I can't remember on that occasion.' Asked if she tried to do anything else to try to stop him, the woman said: 'I couldn't stop him, I couldn't push him off me.' She added: 'It was a freeze response, I froze.' The woman also said Brain had been 'grooming' her and 'following me about in his car'. She described it as a 'relentless pursuit'. The woman also said she believes she was 'brain washed' and added she could not go back to her family. Iain Simkin, defending, started cross-examination by saying Brain says he did not rape her, and he says he did not sexually assault her at all. Mr Simkin asked the woman if she had said no during the alleged rape and she said she groaned no. The trial continues.
BBC News
4 hours ago
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Church 'cult' priest 'brainwashed and raped' woman, court told
A woman has told a court she was "brainwashed" and raped by a priest who led a "cult" within the Church of witness said Chris Brain "groomed" her before attacking her in his family home in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, two years before he began the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), a jury Brain is on trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of 37 sexual offences against 13 women who were involved in influential evangelical 68-year-old, of Park Road in Wilmslow, Cheshire, who led NOS from 1986 to 1995 before it collapsed, denies the charges. On Friday, a recorded video interview was played to the court of a woman who has alleged Mr Brain raped and indecently assaulted said she got to know Mr Brain and other NOS leaders after meeting his wife in the early 1980s when she was a student."My first impression of him actually was he was evil, but he was surrounded by all these good people," she said."It was even then a cult, with him at the centre of it."The woman said Mr Brain began a "relentless pursuit of me, filling my head with rubbish, saying about the mission".He would kiss and "grope" her and tell her she was his "special friend," the court woman, who cannot be named, said Mr Brain raped her in 1983 or 1984 after inviting her to his house "out of the blue" while his wife was Brain "persuaded" the woman to drink a glass of whisky before asking her to go upstairs to look at a futon, the court woman said: "He sat down beside me and after a short while he pushed me down on the bed, so he was on top of me. "He started raping me. I was putting my head side to side and groaning, going 'no.' I couldn't get him off me."I couldn't move. I couldn't get him off me."It was like a freeze response." 'Traumatised' After the rape, which the woman said lasted about a minute, Mr Brain told her to have a bath and was "really nervous and edgy," the court heard."He hustled me out of the house quite soon after that," the woman added."He told me he'd used a condom but it had split. I think he was petrified of evidence or that I'd get pregnant."The woman said she was "traumatised" and "repulsed" by the rape but did not want to tell family and friends about what had happened so did not report it to the police."I thought the only way I can deal with this is to supress the feelings, to sort of park it deeply, and to forgive him," she woman went on to be involved in NOS after Mr Brain and others set up the congregation at St Thomas Crookes said: "All the way through NOS I was frightened. I was frightened right until the time it blew up. I was frightened of Chris Brain."Defence lawyer Iain Simkin KC told the court Mr Brain said he and the woman had consensual sex."His account is that you and he had a short fling that culminated in one penetrative sexual act which you consented to," the barrister told the woman. "That's not the truth," she by Mr Simkin why she had remained involved in NOS if Mr Brain had raped her, the woman said she had "no way out that I could think of" and she believed her involvement to be "a call from God".The woman said members of NOS experienced "classic cult-like" grooming which cut them off from friends, disrupted their sleep patterns and changed their said the Church of England had "abandoned these people" by seeking to distance itself from NOS in a "damage limitation exercise" when allegations about Mr Brain became public in Brain is charged with raping the woman and indecently assaulting her on another occasion in 1984, when he is alleged to have groped her is also accused of 35 other indecent assaults against 12 other women between 1981 and 1995. He denies all the was initially celebrated by Church of England leaders for its nightclub-style services which incorporated live music and multimedia and attracted hundreds of young people to its prosecutors have told the jury NOS "became a cult" in which Mr Brain abused his position to sexually assault "a staggering number" of women from his trial continues. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Ex-'cult' priest who 'sexually assaulted members' held 'disturbing services'
Christopher Brain, 68, is accused of abusing his position as leader of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS) to sexually assault a 'staggering number' of women followers A former priest accused of sexual offences against 13 women in his congregation led an evangelical movement that held "extremely disturbing" services featuring "young women behaving in what looked like a controlled manner," a court has heard. Christopher Brain, 68, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, was leader of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), part of the Church of England, in Sheffield between 1986 and 1995. He has been charged with one count of rape and 36 counts of indecent assault between 1981 and 1995, all of which he denies. The prosecution allege NOS became a cult where Brain abused his position to sexually assault a "staggering number" of women followers, exerting control over their lives and ostracising them from friends and family. Inner London Crown Court has heard a "homebase team" was set up to "care for" Brain – referred to as "the Lycra Lovelies" or "the Lycra Nuns" – with witnesses reporting seeing the defendant surrounded by attractive women in lingerie at his home looking after his needs. Mark Stibbe was a curate of St Thomas's Church in Sheffield when NOS was holding services there. Giving evidence on Wednesday, he said there was "concern" about the direction NOS was taking and discussion about Brain and what was going on at his home. He told the court: "I remember one church administrator or finance officer at St Thomas's who was like an old school army man and he brought up the negative optics, potentially anyway, of scantily clad, lycra-wearing pretty young women as he put it coming to and from Chris Brain's house on a regular basis to perform 'domestic duties'." The witness said the man got a "roasting" for asking whether there was "anything untoward" about it and that others at St Thomas's felt that if the church's vicar, Robert Warren, was not going to intervene then junior clergy had no business doing so. He said it did not appear to him that Reverend Warren was able to control Brain. He also recalled there was "a lot of controversy" over the Greenbelt Christian arts festival "into which NOS had poured many hours and many thousands of pounds." Dr Stibbe moved to another church in 1993 but attended a NOS service once it had moved to a new location in Ponds Forge after a member of his congregation expressed concerns to him about it. Of his visit, he said: "My view at the time was that it was extremely disturbing and that my friend who had said it was disturbing was correct. The reason I found it disturbing is that the things that had been reported from the Greenbelt Festival about girls gyrating in scantily clad costume in a worship context, that is what I was seeing in this context." Asked if he thought the women were willing participants, he told jurors: "This is the thing that concerns me. I couldn't tell. In a progressive culture… it seemed to me to be a graphic, vivid contradiction to have young women behaving in what looked like a controlled manner." Earlier the court heard from Rev Warren who said allegations that emerged about Brain's abuse "came as a total shock," although he admitted he had a sense of "cult-like elements" emerging in NOS. Asked while giving evidence over a video link to explain what kinds of behaviour he saw, he said: "Just a sort of controlling of people and a focus on Chris Brain almost as a sort of guru." He added: "I think it was a sense of deference to Chris Brain that if you asked people about the service they would always say, well what Chris thinks is or what Chris wants is. With the other services I wouldn't get that sort of response." The reverend said if NOS had continued to hold services at St Thomas's he expects that behaviour would have become clearer and he would have done something about it. He told the court that NOS had 400 regular worshippers when it left St Thomas's and at one stage there was a mass confirmation service of 93 members of NOS – "the largest group that we had ever confirmed in one church." He agreed that NOS was exciting and innovative for the Church of England and that it could engage young people in ways the church was until then failing to do, incorporating "rave" culture and music as part of worship. "Some people who were at that service would come from 20 or 30 miles away because they found the service so inspiring," he said. The witness also told jurors that NOS functioned independently financially from St Thomas's, and that NOS contributed to payments to Brain as a "lay leader" and then as a priest once he was ordained. The trial continues.
