'Cult' priest guilty of rape and assault of women

A priest who established a "cult" within the Church of England has been found guilty of raping a woman in his congregation.

Chris Brain was also convicted of four counts of indecent assault against three other women who were part of the Nine O'Clock Service in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.

The 69-year-old was found guilty of the offences after a retrial at Inner London Crown Court, having already been found guilty of 17 indecent assaults against nine women at a trial last year.

Brain, previously of Wilmslow in Greater Manchester, is in custody awaiting sentencing at a later date.

Prosecutors told the court Brain had abused his position as a priest to sexually assault "a staggering number of women from his congregation".

The Nine O'Clock Service, known as NOS, attracted hundreds of young people to St Thomas's church with its ground-breaking nightclub-style worship.

But prosecutor Tim Clark KC said it "became a cult" in which members were encouraged to cut themselves off from family and friends, leaving them "utterly dependent" on Brain, and lived in fear of being ostracised if they crossed him.

The verdicts mean Brain has now been convicted of a total of 22 sexual offences against 13 women.

Following his latest convictions, South Yorkshire Police said Brain was a "devious and arrogant sexual predator who caused lasting harm to these women".

Across the two trials the court heard several of Brain's victims were part of a so-called "homebase team", who cared for him 24 hours a day in his family home and would be expected to "put him to bed" with sexual massages.

One of the women told the court how Brain had pushed her down onto his bed and raped her after inviting her to his house while his wife was away between 1981 and 1984.

Brain, who quit as a priest when allegations about his conduct were first raised in 1995, accepted having sexual contact with some of the women but told the court it had always been consensual.

In an Everyman Special broadcast by BBC One in November 1995, Brain admitted sexual activity with women members of NOS but denied it was abuse and said it was for "closeness and affection", the court heard.

Julie Moss, senior crown prosecutor for Yorkshire and Humberside, said Brain had perpetrated "a disturbing campaign of manipulation and abuse".

She added: "Victims were isolated from their loved ones, made financially and emotionally dependent on the group, and made to believe that resistance to Brain's sexual advances reflected their own personal or spiritual failings."

Det Supt Eleanor Welsh, of South Yorkshire Police, said: "These women have waited three or four decades for these verdicts and bravely relived their ordeals in a bid to secure justice."

Judge Freya Newbury said victims would be given the chance to deliver impact statements at a sentencing hearing, which is likely to take two days.

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