Brain allegedly ran a cult with 'Lycra Nuns' who massaged and served him in lingerie. Photo / Getty Images
A former priest in the UK who ran a cult surrounded by beautiful, lingerie-wearing “Lycra Nuns” used his position to abuse a “staggering number of women”, a court has heard.
Chris Brain, 68, led a group in the 1980s and 1990s in Sheffield called the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS) in which he was viewed by his alleged victims as a God-like “prophet” whom they “worshipped”.
The evangelical church movement, which was aimed at young people with the use of multimedia and live music, held its “visually stunning” services on Sundays at 9pm.
Jurors heard how Brain had his ordination licence “fast-tracked” because Church of England officials viewed his organisation as “a success story”.
Brain, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, is standing trial accused of committing sexual offences against 13 women. He denies one count of rape and 36 counts of indecent assault between 1981 and 1995.
At the opening of the trial at Inner London Crown Court this week, Tim Clark KC, prosecuting, told how the NOS presented itself as a “progressive force for good” involved with the local community and in environmental concerns.
He added: “In truth, NOS became a closed and controlled group which the defendant dominated and abused his position, first as a leader and then as an ordained priest, to sexually assault a staggering number of women from his congregation.
“Any capacity [his alleged victims] had to consent had been removed by the domineering nature of the defendant, by his control over their entire lives and by their absolute terror of being ostracised, and that’s what he intended.”
His alleged victims described the NOS as full of “brainwashing”, “grooming”, “mind games” and abuse.
It was formed in the 1980s after Brain and his wife moved to Sheffield when she became a student at the city’s university.
He had a Christian rock band, Present Tense, which evolved into NOS at St Thomas Church in the Crookes area of the city. The organisation later moved to larger premises at Ponds Forge in the city centre as it became more successful.
It was set to expand to California when Brain’s alleged victims approached senior church figures in 1995.
The court heard how NOS evolved into a cult in which new members were “vetted”, organised into “discipleship groups”, isolated from their loved ones, and “were encouraged to give up their time, finances and, eventually, their sense of self to this organisation and its leader” leaving them feeling like they could never leave.
Clark told the court how Brain surrounded himself with an inner circle of beautiful “young women who were very scantily dressed” and sometimes referred to as “the Lycra Lovelies” or “the Lycra Nuns” who were enlisted to “care for” him as part of a “home base team”.
These attractive, young women “were noted to be wearing lingerie or otherwise revealing clothing while apparently employed to look after the needs of the defendant” who would allegedly demand massages, during which he would become aroused and assault the women.
The prosecutor also said that Brain would suddenly appear in the lives of female members of NOS, “often picking them up in his car while they were walking along”.
One female congregant, who believes she was brainwashed by the former priest, alleged that he invited her to his home while his wife was away in 1983 or 1984, where he pinned her down and raped her.
“She recalls moving her head from side to side and saying ‘no’,” Clark told jurors. “She said his weight was too great for her to be able to move him off her. She felt that she froze.”
Jurors heard how another alleged victim told how she “had to be available” to put Brain “to bed”, during which he would undress and rub himself against her as she massaged him wearing only her underwear.
“She described going into a ‘robotic’ state doing this,” Clark said. “She dreaded receiving his phone calls”.
Clark said Brain claimed that “by women having a sexual connection with him, they would have their sexuality released and that would end the patriarchy”.
The court also heard that Bishop Stephen Lowe, a former Archdeacon of Sheffield when NOS was being established, raised issues with the then Bishop of Sheffield after he was told in 1995 that women had been put on to a roster to help the former priest “get to bed”.
There was a confrontation with Brain in which he was told it was believed he had abused up to 40 women, the court heard. Clark said Brain replied: “I thought it was more.”
The court also heard that Brain’s ordination in December 1991 “appears to have been fast-tracked despite the concerns of his personal tutor” and that “there is clear evidence that others in NOS helped the defendant to get through the academic elements involved in being ordained”.
Clark told the court that it is clear that the Church of England “initially viewed NOS as a success story”, and that “at his ordination, signs of grandiose self regard were already present”. Large sums of money were spent finding the robes worn by Robert De Niro in the movie The Mission for Brain to wear at the ceremony.
The prosecutor said evidence will show NOS became a cult where members were encouraged to ostracise themselves from their families and friends, and ultimately became dependent on the movement, terrified of being excluded and “desperate for the attention and praise” of its leader.
One alleged victim said of Brain that “he would manipulate her, pull her into his orbit and then push her away. She soon saw that this was how he dealt with everyone, keeping people spinning, playing people against each other”, Clark said.
The court heard how, for many alleged victims, NOS became their “entire life” and that those who were deemed to be “insufficiently faithful and co-operative” were ostracised from the organisation.
Some members contributed large sums of money to the organisation or gave up their inheritances or their homes – including one who provided 10% of her benefits income to the NOS as a tithe – while others “acted as if they were in love” with Brain, with alleged victims telling how they were encouraged to distance themselves from their loved ones because “the church of God was their family now”.
Jurors heard how in 1995 a BBC documentary was made about NOS and that the reasons for its collapse was because Brain had allegedly behaved in a sexually inappropriate way with a number of women.
In the programme, Brain admitted being “involved in improper sexual conduct with a number of women”, and he told of a meeting with the then Archbishop of Canterbury elect, Dr George Carey, who said he would be happy to see a NOS “in every town and city in the country”.
The trial continues.