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Hundreds of victims of abuse compensated as Jesus Army is wound up

16 September 2024

More than £7 million has been paid out

The cover of the report

The cover of the report

HARM and abuse of individuals within the Jesus Army, a now-defunct religious sect, was “widespread and systemic”, the trustees of the dissolving organisation have concluded.

One in six children living in the community were sexually abused. More than £7 million has been paid out in compensation.

Since December 2020, the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust (formerly known as the Jesus Army or Jesus Fellowship) has comprised professional trustees brought in to dissolve the organisation and its assets, including large properties in which members lived in community.

Originally founded by Noel Stanton in Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire, in 1969, the Jesus Army attracted thousands of members who lived together in close-knit rural communes. Allegations of adult and child abuse within the cult-like group have surfaced in recent years, 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 hundreds of former members were expected to apply (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 financial or non-financial redress. The total amount paid in compensation directly to applicants totalled just more than £7.761 million, plus almost £600,000 towards applicants’ solicitor fees.

The Jesus Army was found vicariously liable for 264 alleged perpetrators, 61 per cent, 162, of whom were leaders in 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 decades, from the 1970s to the 2010s. Reported incidents of child abuse were most prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s.

Applications were made to three branches of the scheme: “individual redress payment” for people who suffered abuse as either a member of a child of a member of the Church; “community adverse experience” for people who suffered harm within the residential community; and “other claims” relating 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 child or adult. Of these, 372 applications cited incidents of child abuse; 203 cited adult abuse.

Of all individual redress payment applications, 217 received financial compensation: a total of £2,622,500; 49 received written apologies; and 23 were invited to meet the trustees. Twenty-one applications of this type remain in progress.

Community adverse experience applications totalled 513 from 483 applicants, of which 465 received financial compensation, a total 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 these applicants, 40 per cent said 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 total of £54,035) 45 per cent were related to employment, 57 per cent to pension entitlement, 20 per cent to retirement promises, and 34 per cent to national-insurance contributions.

In a foreword to the report, the trustees write: “Harm and abuse in the Jesus Fellowship were not limited to a handful of leaders, a particular period of time, or geographical locations. It was widespread and systemic.

“The redress scheme found significant failures in 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 in the Jesus Fellowship community suffered particular harm: four in every ten are estimated to have had adverse experiences in community, and one in six sexually abused.”

They also “recognise the true scale of offending and the number of children and adults adversely affected is likely to be greater than the findings of the redress scheme alone”.

The report concludes with recommendations to inform other redress schemes and processes, including taking a trauma-informed approach with professional and independent support; mandatory reporting of abuse which extends to religious communities or groups of all kinds; and creating a “trusted space” for victims and survivors to disclose details of the abuse. “Privacy of their disclosure was paramount to this trust, including the scheme being clear on who may see the details of an application.”

The trustees confirm that all assets have been sold or closed, but that full distribution of surplus funds will not be complete until court processes have concluded in 2025.

A new charity, Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC), registered in November 2023 under the “Baptist Heritage Assets (Bugbrooke)”, is to “act as the trustee of, and manage, the Bugbrooke Baptist Chapel and Manse. It also has the power to acquire and run the Cornhill Burial Ground. Independent congregations continue to exist in various locations, no longer governed by the Jesus Fellowship Church.”

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