Priest assaulted traumatised woman, court told

A priest sexually assaulted a member of his congregation after she returned from helping victims of the Hillsborough disaster, a court has been told.

Chris Brain, 68, who led the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), an influential evangelical church movement in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s, is accused of 37 sexual offences against 13 women.

One of his alleged victims told jurors at his trial at Inner London Crown Court that Mr Brain had climbed into bed with her after "the most traumatic night" of her life helping at the scene of the April 1989 disaster at Sheffield's Hillsborough ground.

Mr Brain, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, who led NOS from 1986 to 1995 before it collapsed, denies the charges.

Mr Brain picked out vulnerable women to abuse in the "cult" he led within the Church of England, the court heard on Friday.

The woman described Mr Brain as a "monster" who "almost had a sixth sense" for people who were vulnerable.

She said Mr Brain had turned up at her house after she had worked through the night as a volunteer helping families identify dead relatives at the scene of the Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 Liverpool supporters died.

The woman said she had returned home at 06:00 BST after "the most traumatic night of my life" and was struggling to sleep, when Mr Brain was let in to her house by her husband "to congratulate me on what I'd done".

In a police interview played to the jury, the woman broke down in tears as she told a detective: "He climbed into bed with me and started touching me and praising me and stroking my hair.

"Having never seen a dead body, I had just seen 94 dead bodies, I was lying at home in bed and this monster climbs into bed with me.

"I just laid there, I don't know what time he left, I don't know how long it was for, but I know it was horrible."

Cross examining the woman, Mr Brain's barrister Iain Simkin KC suggested his client's actions were not sexual.

The woman replied: "I think someone's hands all over your body when you hadn't asked them to put them there, that's sexual assault."

She told the court Mr Brain was "a predator," who "picked off women he thought were vulnerable".

The woman described another occasion when she feared the priest was going to rape her after pushing her to the floor of his home.

She said Mr Brain had suddenly pushed her down and said: "You need to admit that you're somebody who wants to be raped and until you admit that you can't be a spiritual person."

The court heard Mr Brain would talk about his "mission" of "creating a sort of postmodern expression of sexuality".

The woman said Mr Brain presided over a "deeply psychologically abusive" movement with a culture of fear, intimidation and bullying and his power was "reinforced by the Church," which fast-tracked him for priesthood in 1991.

NOS was initially celebrated by Church of England leaders for its nightclub-style services which incorporated live music and multimedia and attracted hundreds of young people to its congregation.

But prosecutors have told the jury NOS "became a cult," in which Mr Brain abused his position to sexually assault "a staggering number" of women from his congregation.

The trial continues.

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