HARM and abuse of people inside the Jesus Army, a now-defunct religious sect, was “widespread and systematic”, the trustees of the dissolving organisation have concluded.
One in six children living locally were sexually abused. More than £7 million has been paid out in compensation.
Since December 2020, the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust (formerly often known as the Jesus Army or Jesus Fellowship) has comprised skilled trustees brought in to dissolve the organisation and its assets, including large properties by which members lived in community.
Originally founded by Noel Stanton in Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire, in 1969, the Jesus Army attracted 1000’s of members who lived together in close-knit rural communes. Allegations of adult and child abuse inside the cult-like group have surfaced lately, and criminal convictions have been made.
In September 2022, the trustees announced a compensation scheme for survivors of abuse (News, 30 September 2022) to which a whole bunch of former members were expected to use (News, 25 November 2022).
The scheme closed on 31 December 2023. The final report, published last week, sets out the findings from the 890 applications to the scheme, submitted by 601 individuals.
Of all applicants, 96 per cent received an award of economic or non-financial redress. The total amount paid in compensation on to applicants totalled just greater than £7.761 million, plus almost £600,000 towards applicants’ solicitor fees.
The Jesus Army was found vicariously responsible for 264 alleged perpetrators, 61 per cent, 162, of whom were leaders within the Church and community. “All alleged perpetrators of abuse have been referred to the police,” the report says.
Multiple claims were made in relation to 105 alleged perpetrators (40 per cent), it says.
Reported incidents of abuse were prevalent over several a long time, from the Nineteen Seventies to the 2010s. Reported incidents of kid abuse were most prevalent within the Eighties and Nineties.
Applications were made to a few branches of the scheme: “individual redress payment” for individuals who suffered abuse as either a member of a baby of a member of the Church; “community antagonistic experience” for individuals who suffered harm inside the residential community; and “other claims” referring to individual employments matters and/or individual representations to the trust.
There were 333 applications for individual redress payment from 319 individuals who reported suffering emotional, sexual, or physical abuse as a baby or adult. Of these, 372 applications cited incidents of kid abuse; 203 cited adult abuse.
Of all individual redress payment applications, 217 received financial compensation: a complete of £2,622,500; 49 received written apologies; and 23 were invited to fulfill the trustees. Twenty-one applications of this kind remain in progress.
Community antagonistic experience applications totalled 513 from 483 applicants, of which 465 received financial compensation, a complete of £4.1 million; 454 received £227,000 towards counselling, training, and other support; 30 received “outstanding capital contributions for previous trust members” totalling £119,655; and 172 applicants received a written apology.
Of all of those applicants, 40 per cent said that that they had suffered harm as children. This included reports of witnessing abuse (77 per cent); lack of safeguarding (60 per cent); denial of education (81 per cent); denial of social interaction (87 per cent); unhealthy religious practice (83 per cent); and child labour or neglect (36 per cent).
Of the 44 applications to other claims (receiving a complete of £54,035) 45 per cent were related to employment, 57 per cent to pension entitlement, 20 per cent to retirement guarantees, and 34 per cent to national-insurance contributions.
In a foreword to the report, the trustees write: “Harm and abuse within the Jesus Fellowship weren’t limited to a handful of leaders, a specific time period, or geographical locations. It was widespread and systemic.
“The redress scheme found significant failures within the handling of abuse allegations and of alleged perpetrators in community, including Jesus Fellowship leaders’ lack of care and support for victims and survivors. Children within the Jesus Fellowship community suffered particular harm: 4 in every ten are estimated to have had antagonistic experiences in community, and one in six sexually abused.”
They also “recognise the true scale of offending and the number of youngsters and adults adversely affected is prone to be greater than the findings of the redress scheme alone”.
The report concludes with recommendations to tell other redress schemes and processes, including taking a trauma-informed approach with skilled and independent support; mandatory reporting of abuse which extends to spiritual communities or groups of all types; and making a “trusted space” for victims and survivors to reveal details of the abuse. “Privacy of their disclosure was paramount to this trust, including the scheme being clear on who may even see the main points of an application.”
The trustees confirm that each one assets have been sold or closed, but that full distribution of surplus funds won’t be complete until court processes have concluded in 2025.
A recent charity, Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC), registered in November 2023 under the “Baptist Heritage Assets (Bugbrooke)”, is to “act because the trustee of, and manage, the Bugbrooke Baptist Chapel and Manse. It also has the facility to amass and run the Cornhill Burial Ground. Independent congregations live on in various locations, not governed by the Jesus Fellowship Church.”
