A priest who led a notorious Sheffield religious movement has been found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting 13 women, and is now facing a prison sentence.
Chris Brain, who headed up the Nine O’Clock Service in Sheffield during the late 1980s and early 1990s, was convicted after a trial that laid bare the shocking extent of his abuse of women within the group he controlled.
The Nine O’Clock Service was once celebrated as a groundbreaking attempt to bring young people into the Church of England. It blended Christian worship with rave culture, drawing huge crowds to its services and earning national attention as something genuinely new in British religious life. Brain was at the centre of it all, building a devoted following and wielding enormous influence over those around him.
But behind the scenes, prosecutors argued, Brain was using that influence in the worst possible way. The court heard how he manipulated and controlled women within the movement, exploiting the trust and devotion his followers placed in him to carry out a sustained campaign of rape and sexual assault.
The movement itself collapsed in 1995 after allegations of psychological manipulation and sexual abuse first came to light. At the time, the scandal sent shockwaves through the Church of England and raised serious questions about how someone like Brain had been allowed to operate with so little oversight for so long. Dozens of former members came forward to describe the intense psychological control Brain had exerted over the group.
Decades on, the criminal trial has now delivered a verdict that his victims had long been waiting for.
Thirteen women gave evidence against him, describing how Brain had abused his position of spiritual authority to assault them. The court heard accounts of a man who presented himself as a visionary leader while privately treating the women around him as objects he could exploit at will.
The case raises uncomfortable questions about how religious communities can become breeding grounds for exactly this kind of abuse. Brain built an environment where questioning him was almost unthinkable for many followers. That level of control, experts on coercive religious groups have long noted, makes it incredibly difficult for victims to come forward, report what is happening, or even fully recognise what is being done to them at the time.
For the women who were abused, the road to this verdict has been a long one. The original scandal broke thirty years ago, and the fact that a criminal conviction has only now followed speaks to how hard it can be for survivors of abuse within closed religious communities to get justice.
Brain is now facing sentencing, with a prison term expected given the serious nature of the convictions against him.
The case will likely reignite debate about the Church of England’s responsibilities when it comes to monitoring fringe movements operating under its broad umbrella, and what more can be done to protect vulnerable people who place their trust in religious leaders.