Investigating one of the UK’s most abusive cults

Hundreds of people are still traumatized as a result of abuse of an evangelical movement that emerges. Jon Ironmonger, who researched the Jesus Army Group before his closure five years ago, was to meet the director of a new BBC documentary series that tells his story.

At first glance, the Jesus’ army seemed to be a “happy” church with two or three thousand members in the Northamponshire countryside, a gaudy military style uniform and a rainbow -colored war bus fleet.

The truth was very different.

In 2016, I went on a journey that lasted for years to reveal one of the most abusive cults of England.

There were already reports about suspicious practices and unexplained deaths, including a young man on the way to a railway.

However, months later, more than the tea at the St Pancras station, a woman who escaped from the group as young and wanted to stay anonymous, revealed the real scale of the damage caused.

“How many victims have contacted you?” I asked, maybe I waited for an answer in double figures.

“In six or seven hundred regions,” he replied calmly.

My mind exploded. The BBC followed two -year interviews and investigations before publishing our findings of the widespread abuse of children and the proven proof of the high -level leadership.

The church, known as Jesus Scholarship, officially, Closed after a year.

Ellena Wood, the documentary director, who was interested in the media reports of the scandal in 2022, started his own investigation into the Jesus’ Army.

In addition to more than 80 survivors, he spoke to relatives and family members. The result is an immersive, sometimes sad, two -part film.

“I often became the first person to share their experiences, and almost everyone was still trauma. It was a live process for them, or he says.

“One of the things that impressed me would define what we knew as sexual abuse, but they wouldn’t understand it or blame themselves.

“And as a filmmaker, I wanted to convey to a audience that you haven’t left a cult and do not continue your life, you can inform everything about you; your decisions; your way of thinking; your guilt; your relationships”.

Ellena says that people have begun to challenge assumptions about the reasons for staying in the cults.

It compares this with the idea of leaving an internal relationship with the threat of going to hell, as well as abandoning one’s family, friends, money, work and support system.

For example, Nathan, who made a contribution, admitted that he would probably return to the Jesus Army if he was reopened, even though he struggled to face the fact that he was careful and sexual assault, “Nathan says.

• Child sexual abuse and sexual abuse or violence and help and support details in the UK BBC Action line

Especially for children, the cult of the cult in Central England in many common home life was full of intense and danger.

About One of the six people was sexually harassedAccording to the review of the claims of damage to approximately 600 people.

The children left their parents and often slept with dibs and drug addicts in Dormans.

Many of them were subjected to daily beatings, and with the extraction of the devil and the withdrawal of sins, he endured long worship sessions.

Listening to the accounts of the survivors gave Ellena emotional harm.

“I just became a mother and I was making detailed conversations about abuse, sometimes two or three hours of incest, and then my son would come from the nursery, and all these mental images would be in my head.”

“You create these relationships with too much contact, too much assurance, and you are trying to do what is right by everyone, so sometimes there is a lot to carry.”

After the disintegration of the Jesus army, the BBC founder Noel Stanton said with the five apostles, taking complaints and covering up the abuse of women and children.

An old elder described the leader of the church as a “prey -pedophile” and accused me of rape and sexual assault and gave me a statement file.

However, Standon died in 2009 before responding to any of the allegations.

“People were afraid of him, and in particular, the children were completely horrified.”

But was the cult of Stanton always evil, or did it begin as a good thing and turned into something bad?

“I should have guessed, I can say the second, El Ellena says.

“I think the more difficult it was on Christmas, the more control he felt.

“But I think the biggest problem was not to report abuse; the victims were forgiven and often the gas was illuminated. There is no excuse for this.”

It is clear that many people in the Jesus army have positive experiences: “It wasn’t always terrible for everyone and we have to be aware of things that are not black and white in the world.”

In a touching scene in the documentary, David, a former elderly supporting the group, is drowning in tears under Ellena’s careful questioning.

“He acknowledges what people should start from believing what they’re going through, and any leader said for the first time from the church, so he was a big moment,” he says.

The Jesus’ Army, the Jesus Scholarship Foundation, said that he was horrified by the abuse and offered an unprotected apology to everyone who was affected.

Last year, a correction plan, which was partially financed by insurance, paid an average of £ 12,000 individual damage to an average of hundreds of victims.

In the cult of the Jesus Army, BBC is two and BBC İPLAYER BST 21:00 on Sunday, July 27.

A Podcast that accompanies in detail: The Jesus Army will start with the cult BBC SOUNDS On Monday, July 28.