by Chris Baynes, BBC News
The Bishop of Sheffield rebuked a clergyman who raised concerns about a “cult” in which a priest allegedly abused women in his congregation, a court has heard.
Dr Mark Stibbe said he was accused of starting a “witch hunt” after he warned then-bishop David Lunn about Chris Brain’s Nine O’Clock Service (NOS).
Dr Stibbe, former curate of St Thomas Crookes Church where NOS was initially held, told Mr Brain’s trial that he wrote to the bishop after witnessing “extremely disturbing” services featuring “scantily clad young girls gyrating” .
Mr Brain, 68, is on trial at Inner London Crown Court accused of one rape and 36 indecent assaults against 13 women between 1981 and 1995. He denies all charges.
NOS was initially lauded by Church of England leaders for attracting hundreds of young people to its congregation with nightclub-style evangelical services in Sheffield featuring live music, progressive theology and multimedia.
But it collapsed in acrimony in 1995 amid allegations Mr Brain, now of Park Road in Wilmslow, Cheshire, had abused members of his congregation, including women who were expected to clean his house and “put him to bed” with “sexual favours”, prosecutors have told the jury.
Giving evidence on the second day of the trial, Dr Stibbe said he had written to Bishop Lunn after attending a NOS service at Ponds Forge sports complex in Sheffield, where the group had relocated in 1993 due to its growing popularity.