'This can't happen again'
Cult survivor Magsy reveals the abuse and humiliation she endured in the Jesus Army
BBC/Docsville Studios/Alamy Archive
- Amy Raphael
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In the opening scenes of Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army, a group of angry and frustrated adults are talking to a psychotherapist about their lives inside a cult. We then see footage of the community to which they once belonged: a rabble-rousing pastor with wildly unruly hair and spit on his chin whispers to a church full of devoted followers, “I want you. I want you to be mine. Surrender the middle part of you… sin lurks there.” The congregation talk in tongues, their arms in the air, their faces beatific. It’s like something from a horror movie.
Firebrand preacher Noel Stanton set up an evangelical church in a small Northamptonshire chapel in the early 1970s, offering the promise of a “new creation”. The reality was a sinister cult where children were beaten and, according to a report published last year, one in six children were sexually abused. The religious sect, originally known as the Jesus Fellowship Church and later the Jesus Army, had more than 2,000 members at its peak, many of whom lived in large communal houses across central England.
The abuse was finally uncovered, following a BBC investigation in 2019, with former members revealing that the adults would watch them undress or take a bath when they were young. The BBC also exposed allegations of abuse on a “prolific scale”, including rapes and “brainwashing”. The Jesus Army closed shortly afterwards, a decade after Stanton’s death and following around 200 complaints of abuse, with most claims relating to incidents in the 80s and 90s.
Jesus Army preacher Noel Stanton. BBC/Docsville Studios/John Angerson
Jesus Army survivor Magsy, 48, was born into the community and lived in one of their houses, in Sheepfold in Northamptonshire. Her mother, a graphic designer, joined the community having struggled to raise her two young daughters alone. Sheepfold was initially “amazing”; there were fields to play in, gooseberries to be picked with other kids. But, like many of the children, she was separated from her mother and the church became her family. She talks in the documentary about time spent watching people “playing guitar, speaking in tongues, some looking possessed”.
Magsy grew up thinking “Noel [Stanton] was next to God”. She once gave him a handmade card and he thanked her, which was “such a precious moment, such a feeling of love from the king of kings. I loved him.” It wasn’t until she started therapy that she realised he was a “total wrong ’un”.
I had to stand on a chair while the leader said I was possessed
She recalls the time she had chicken pox and couldn’t stop itching through her sleep suit. The Jesus Army members were sitting in a lounge, playing guitars and praying. “The senior leader of our household told everyone to stop what they were doing. He said the devil was making me ill and disrupting the meeting. It was terrifying. I was trying so hard not to itch. I had to stand on a chair in the middle of the room while the leader preached that I was possessed.”
When Magsy was eight years old, her mother finally left. Magsy has since been diagnosed with CPTSD [Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which arises from repeated traumatic experience], goes to specialist post-cult therapy to help her come to terms with her traumatic experience growing up inside the community and says she has struggled to accept what happened to her as a child.
Survivor Magsy. BBC/Docsville Studios
I ask Magsy if, like many of the children in the Jesus Army, she was sexually abused. “I don’t think so. But were the children in the Jesus Army abused? 100 per cent. We were the bottom of the pile. I was the daughter of a single mum. I was brown. I was the lowest of the low.”
Following a police investigation, several men have been sentenced for the indecent and sexual assault of victims. Hundreds of former victims have been paid compensation for alleged sexual, physical and psychological abuse.
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Magsy is in a survivors’ Facebook group, a WhatsApp group with people her age who were part of the Jesus Army and, when pushed by her sister, she applied for compensation offered by the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust, made up of professional trustees brought in to dissolve the organisation and its assets. She was brought up to “keep everything quiet… Of course I’m worried about friends I’ve had since I was 11 finding out about my past when they watch the documentary, but I agreed to take part for one reason: this can’t happen again.”
Authors
Amy Raphael
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