Christopher Brain, the former priest who led the Sheffield-based Nine O’Clock Service, has been found guilty of rape and four indecent assaults after a retrial at Inner London Crown Court.
Brain, 69, was previously convicted of 17 counts of indecent assault against nine women. The latest verdicts mean he has now been convicted of a total of 22 sexual offences against 13 women.
He shook his head slightly and exhaled when the guilty verdict on the rape charge was delivered. Brain will remain in custody until he is sentenced. Judge Freya Newbury said victims would have the opportunity to deliver impact statements at a sentencing hearing expected to last two days.
The Press Association reported that Brain led the Nine O’Clock Service, or NOS, between 1986 and 1995. The evangelical movement was part of the Church of England and attracted a congregation largely made up of university students and young adults. At its height, it had about 500 members.
The service was founded at St Thomas’s Church in Sheffield’s Crookes area before moving to the Ponds Forge area in the city centre. It took its name from evangelical services held at 9pm on Sundays, featuring live music and nightclub-style lighting.
Prosecutor Tim Clark KC told the court that NOS presented itself publicly as “a progressive force for good”, but had become a “closed and controlled group” dominated by Brain.
“He abused his position first as a leader and then as an ordained priest to sexually assault a staggering number of women from his congregation,” Mr Clark said.
The court heard that Brain controlled aspects of the women’s lives, including their relationships and finances, and encouraged them to compete for his attention. A group known as the “homebase team” was established to care for him. Members were also referred to as the “Lycra Lovelies” or the “Lycra Nuns”.
Witnesses described seeing Brain surrounded by women in lingerie at his home. The court heard that he groomed women, touched them during massages and persuaded them to engage in sexual acts while putting him to bed.
Brain left the priesthood when allegations about his conduct were first raised in 1995. He admitted having sexual relationships with followers but maintained that the activity was consensual.
The court was also told that television programmes were made and books written after allegations emerged in 1995 about Brain’s alleged abuse of his position. Brain appeared in one documentary and admitted to a filmmaker that he had engaged in sexual contact with several female members of NOS.
In a BBC One Everyman Special broadcast in November 1995, Brain acknowledged sexual activity with women in the movement but denied that it amounted to abuse, describing it as being for “closeness and affection”, the court heard.
During the retrial, one woman told the court that Brain had lured her to his home, given her whisky and raped her in an attic bedroom. Another woman who had been part of the homebase team said she was criticised when her clothing was not provocative enough. She recalled frequently standing naked in front of Brain while he remained fully clothed and described him as a “Jekyll and Hyde character”.
Women whose allegations had been proved at the first trial gave evidence again during the retrial.
Julie Moss, senior crown prosecutor for CPS Yorkshire and Humberside, said Brain had conducted a “disturbing campaign of manipulation and abuse”. She said he had isolated women from friends and relatives, made them financially and emotionally dependent on the group and caused them to believe that resisting his sexual advances reflected personal or spiritual failings.
“This was not consent,” Ms Moss said. “It was forced submission, caused by the culture of fear and dependency Brain had deliberately created.”
She paid tribute to the women who gave evidence, describing their bravery as “immense” and saying their courage had been central to securing the convictions.
Detective Superintendent Eleanor Welsh, the senior investigating officer at South Yorkshire Police, described Brain as a “devious and arrogant sexual predator” who had harmed the women through his abuse of power and manipulation of their faith.
The abuse occurred when the women were young and impressionable and were seeking guidance from someone they believed they could trust, she said. While the verdicts could not undo what had happened, Det Supt Welsh said she hoped they would bring victims some comfort by showing that they had been heard.
One survivor, in a statement shared by the law firm Slater and Gordon, said the women had first approached the Bishop of Sheffield about Brain’s emotional, financial, spiritual and sexual abuse more than 30 years ago.
The survivor said the length of time it had taken to reach the verdicts was “a cause of great shame for the Church of England”. The women had lived with unresolved trauma and had been so affected by the coercive control they experienced that they did not speak to one another about it, the statement said.
The survivor also criticised the Church for failing to ask the women what had happened, either when the disclosures were made or during the years that followed. The Church of England, the survivor said, “should have also been in the dock with Brain”, while acknowledging that this did not lessen his responsibility.
The Right Reverend Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield, said he had previously offered an unreserved apology for the abuse of power and leadership that took place within NOS. He said the latest verdict added to the same picture and that his apology stood in full.
An independent safeguarding practice review into the Church’s response at the time of the offences was commissioned last year and had been held while the retrial was under way. The review will now begin, the bishop said.
Brain’s convictions follow years of allegations, legal proceedings and campaigning by survivors. His sentence has not yet been determined, and victims are expected to give impact statements at the future sentencing hearing.
