'Cult' priest sexually abused women, court told

A priest who established a "cult" within the Church of England abused his position to rape and sexually assault young women, a court heard.

Chris Brain, 69, has already been convicted of sexual offences against "numerous" women who were part of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), a radical Christian movement which he led in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s, a jury was told.

The former rock musician went on trial again at Inner London Crown Court on Friday accused of one count of rape and four counts of indecent assault against four women.

Brain, of Wilmslow in Cheshire, denies the charges.

The court heard Brain led NOS - described as a "groundbreaking" church service incorporating live music, "stunning" visuals and progressive theology - between 1986 and 1995, and the Church of England initially regarded its popularity with young Christians as a huge success.

Prosecutor Tim Clark KC said the congregation "presented itself as a progressive force for good" but became a "closed and controlled group", dominated by Brain, in which members were "desperate for the attention and praise" of their leader.

Members cut ties with friends and family and became "utterly dependent" on NOS and "terrified" of being ostracised if they were deemed insufficiently committed to the organisation, he said.

Some of the women were assigned to a "homebase team" which cared for Brain, his wife and their young daughter, the court was told.

They were put on a rota to "help the defendant get to bed" with sexual favours, while others would be summoned to give him sexual massages, the prosecutor said.

"This was a cult, in which the young women were reduced to such an emotional reliance on the defendant's approval that they no longer had the capacity to freely consent to the sexual behaviour involved," Clark told the jury.

Jurors heard NOS "imploded in recriminations" in 1995 after a former NOS member told Church of England leaders Brain had inappropriate sexual relationships with a number of women.

When the Diocese of Sheffield confronted Brain over allegations he had abused up to 40 women, he replied, "I thought it was more", the court heard.

Brain later resigned as a priest after admitting in a 1995 BBC TV documentary that he had been "involved in improper sexual conduct with a number of women", jurors were told.

Clark said Brain still maintained all sexual activity had been consensual.

But the prosecutor told the jury it was impossible for the women to have given genuine consent due to the "cult-like domineering nature of the defendant's control over them".

He said Brain's alleged victims had been "groomed" by a man they considered to be a "mouthpiece for God", with one woman who gave the priest topless massages telling police she felt she would be "failing as a Christian" if she rejected his advances.

Another woman - who told police Brain had pushed her down onto a bed and raped her - described being "brainwashed" and made financially dependent on him.

Brain was found guilty of "a large number" of indecent assault charges involving "numerous members of NOS" at a trial last year, Clark told the jury.

He said these offences showed the defendant had "a propensity, or a tendency, to abuse his position within the church to sexually assault young women".

Brain continues to deny the charges of which he had been convicted, the court heard.

The trial continues.

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