| December 10, 2006 | Scientologists Get Pounds 270,000 From The Public Purse | The controversial Church of Scientology has been granted a subsidy of more than pounds 270,000 a year in public money, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal. Scientology's lawyers used European rulings and Government equality regulations to force the City of London corporation to grant an 80 per cent rates discount for its new centre near St Paul's Cathedral. The "church", it is believed, is now pressing to pay nothing at all. The corporation confirmed that this discount was on the basis that Scientology is a "charity", despite the fact that the Charity Commission has refused to register it. The discount, referred to as a "mandatory rate relief", has been granted even though the Church of Scientology has estimated global assets of $398 million (pounds 203 million). | |
| November 22, 2006 | Scientologists Woo Police With Gifts Worth Thousands | Police officers have accepted gifts worth thousands of pounds from the Church of Scientology, it emerged yesterday. The wealthy religious movement has spent the money cultivating contacts in the City of London force. Officers received free invitations to film premieres and a Pounds 500 a head charity dinner where the guest of honour was Tom Cruise. Sources inside the City police have described the church as "grooming" selected officers in the hope of winning powerful influence inside the force. | |
| October 28, 2006 | Scientology: Plasticine and Teddy Bears at the New UK Base of L Ron Hubbard | While Scientologists describe their "applied religion" as an exact science which guarantees self-improvement, critics say the organisation is a personality cult based on the obscure beliefs of a man who said humans are aliens implanted into volcanoes trillions of years ago. Former members claim Scientology targets vulnerable individuals, persuading them into spending exorbitant sums of money on "auditing", a form of counselling. Posing as a student - Scientology's founder, the late science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, banned journalists from becoming members - the Guardian gained access to the church's newest centre of recruitment this week. | |
| October 24, 2006 | The Strange Case Of The Cop And The Cult | In 1984, Mr Justice Latey concluded a custody hearing involving Scientologists and former Scientologists by declaring that the organisation was "corrupt, sinister and dangerous", citing the Church of Scientology's "infamous practices" with regard to anyone who dares to criticise it or question its methods - though his rebuke appeared to have little effect on the Church's attack-dog approach to any kind of threat, however marginal. | |
| October 24, 2006 | Police Criticised over Scientology | A cult information group has complained to a senior police officer about comments he made at the opening of the pounds 24m Church of Scientology centre in London. It also emerged yesterday that four City of London police officers attended a lavish reception at the headquarters of the Scientology movement in East Grinstead on Saturday night. | |
| October 3, 2006 | Pandora: The Sect, the Shindig and the Party Animals | Our MPs receive small forests of embossed invitations to assorted freebee shindigs. There is to be a "Grand Opening" of the Church of Scientology's jazzy new London headquarters. The rich sect boasts such celebrities as John Travolta and Tom Cruise. "We would be quite nervous about going," says one parliamentary aide, "but we think a few female MPs will head down on the off chance that Cruise turns up." | |
| November 4, 2005 | Inside Cult Castle - The Weird Rituals at Scientology's Sussex HQ | "Have you ever destroyed a culture?" he asks. "Have you ever bred bodies for degrading purposes? Did you come to Earth for evil purposes?" Down the corridor, another sect member listens to a series of lectures on how, 75 million years ago, an alien prince killed millions of people with atom bombs. We are inside St Hill Manor, a small fortress in the West Sussex stockbroker belt, a rambling mansion that houses the British nerve-centre of the controversial Church Of Scientology. | |
| October 30, 2005 | Tom Gets Cult Gong | Tom Cruise flew into Britain to receive an award for becoming the biggest-ever cash donor to Scientology. Cruise and his pregnant fiancee Katie Holmes received a standing ovation from thousands of members during a three-day gala meeting of the group. The Diamond Meritorious Award was specially created to reflect his donations of millions of dollars over the years. Last year he was presented with the Platinum Meritorious Award for handing over $2.5million (pounds 1.4m) since joining the sect. | |
| December 10, 1999 | Scientologists Are Refused Charitable Status | The Church of Scientology failed in its attempt to become a registered charity because the organisation was not of "public benefit". The Charity Commission rejected the application for charity status after detailed consideration and despite taking a "broad and flexible" view of the law. "The commissioners concluded that the core activities of scientologists - auditing and training - were private in nature and in the benefit they delivered." | |
| December 26, 1998 | Real Life: How We Escaped The Clutches Of A Cult | The brainwashing made me paranoid. I was told I could be badly affected by the negative thoughts of those around me. So I feared my friends and family - or anyone who argued against Scientology - was ruining my spiritual development. Scientologists teach you to ignore criticism. I was taught to change the subject if Mum or Dad asked me to do something that interfered with my "studies", and then carry on as if they had never asked. My family were worried about my strange behaviour, but I refused to listen. | |
| December 9, 1993 | Cult Prosecuted Over Safety of Commune | Scientology, one of Britain's largest cults, is being prosecuted by a local authority for failing to ensure one of its largest communes is safe for human habitation. The Independent has been leaked documents from the church headquarters that show it may have misled safety inspectors over the number of adults and children living in the commune. The cult has persistently denied overcrowding in any of these communes and says they are fit for human habitation. It has, however, been confirmed that environmental health officers from Mid-Sussex are prosecuting the cult for failing to keep Stonelands, one of its largest communes, safe. | |
