FORMER members of the Church of Scientology have made explosive allegations about forced abortions, child abuse and financial extortion, prompting calls for a parliamentary inquiry. Letters tabled by independent senator Nick Xenophon reveal claims of vulnerable people preyed on by a coercive and ruthless organisation that punished and shamed dissenters by physical incarceration, withholding food or intimidation. But the Church of Scientology hit back, arguing the claims came from seven ''disgruntled former members who use hate speech and distorted accounts of ...

This is a speech Senator Nick Xenophon gave in the Senate on November 17, 2009 I rise to speak tonight on an issue of utmost seriousness that I believe deserves a great deal of scrutiny by law enforcement agencies and by this parliament. In the past few weeks, I have been contacted by former members of the Church of Scientology after I questioned the tax exemption status the organisation has under our tax laws during an interview on the Seven Network’s ...

The inquiry into the suicide of a Brisbane-based soldier has heard details of the expletive-laden verbal bullying he was subjected before he took his own life at an electrical power station on the city's northside. Details of the harassment Edward McBride was subjected to in the two years before he took his own life were heard during the second day of a commission of inquiry into the 30-year-old soldier's death. The counsel representing the McBride family, Air Force Wing Commander Glenn ...

I knew Scientology was in trouble when the media moved on from the usual silly gossip about its celebrity members to much darker, disturbing issues at the heart of the movement. After a Paris court last month convicted several Scientologists and two organisations associated with the movement in France of organised fraud, and amid other investigations in France looking at a suicide and an alleged abduction, Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis, a long-time member, quit Scientology. Haggis, who wrote and directed Crash, ...

Five years after Tom Cruise called Nicolas Sarkozy a “wonderful guy,” a French court convicted his church of fraud. Eric Pape on Scientology’s latest crisis. Scientology isn’t a religion, it’s a dangerous sect overseen by convicted criminals—at least as far as France is concerned. There is no doubt that the last week has brought a flurry of bad news for Scientology. There was the vocal defection of respected film director Paul Haggis, as well as fresh indications that John Travolta, one ...

Most religious organisations can weather a high-profile defection or two. Many might successfully explain away a fraud conviction in a foreign criminal court, or deal with the spectacular suicide of a member, or muddle through a less than stellar public performance by a prominent spokesman. Rarely, though, does a religion have to face up to all these challenges in the same week. The past few days have been little short of a nightmare for Scientology, the strange, secretive religion that thrives ...

Scientologists are used to making the headlines in America, where only this month there has been a row over a TV interview and a high-profile defection by the Oscar-winning Crash director Paul Haggis. But the controversial sect now has problems on the other side of the world, in Australia. Questions are being asked about the role of local Scientologists in the suicide of Edward McBride, a Northern Ireland-born soldier who killed himself in Brisbane in 2007. It now transpires that his ...

The 110,000-volt electric charge that killed Edward McBride was so strong it caused an explosion capable of causing flash burns up to 10 metres away. Witnesses who saw it at the Energex substation in Everton, in Brisbane's north, two years ago likened it to fireworks that glowed red long after the Brisbane soldier's life had ended. There could be no doubt the 30-year-old Special Forces commando and trained electrician wanted to die, of that fact State Coroner John Lock could be ...

THE Church of Scientology has invoked "confessional privilege" for its refusal to hand over files to the Queensland Coroner. An inquest into the death of Edward Alexander McBride – a soldier who killed himself two days after finishing one of the church's intensive courses in 2007 – revealed last week his "audit" file had been sent to the church's US headquarters. Scientology spokeswoman Vicki Dunstan yesterday said the file requested by the Coroner was "privileged and sacrosanct". "Essentially these are notations ...

THE Church of Scientology refused to provide records demanded by a coroner investigating the death of a soldier who committed suicide two days after finishing one of the church's intensive courses. It emerged yesterday that the American headquarters of the church instructed its Australian branch to send the soldier's "audit file" to the US — which is outside the coroner's jurisdiction — before warrants were issued. Edward Alexander McBride was found electrocuted and hanged at an Energex substation at Everton Park, ...

A CORONER has cleared the Australian Defence Force of contributing to the suicide of a young private who had been bullied by other soldiers. In written findings handed down late last week, Brisbane coroner John Lock found there was nothing to suggest that bullying and harassment in the army was instrumental in Edward Alexander McBride's decision to end his life. Mr McBride, 30, was found hanging from a rope at the Energex substation in Brisbane's Everton Park on February 7, 2007. ...

The director of Milk and the author of American Psycho are to write a film about the lives and deaths of artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake [Picture / Caption: Pens at the ready … Gus van Sant and Bret Easton Ellis. Photographs: Focus Features/Everett/Rex Features and Jennifer Graylock/AP] It is a tale of intrigue, paranoia and harassment by unseen forces, one which takes in the rock star Beck, the Church of Scientology and 9/11 conspiracies. It ends with the deaths ...

It claims to be one of the world's fastest-growing new religions but a battery of legal cases threaten its very existence in this secular country In a small Normandy village, surrounded by wheat fields, Gwen Le Berre keeps a Scientology "electrometer" machine in his bedroom. He opens the large green briefcase and peers at the machine inside. It looks like a lie-detector from an old TV cop show and Le Berre doesn't really understand how it works — he just knows ...

Day 3 (May 27): the second plaintiff in the Paris trial of Scientology told the court how her employer put her under ever-increasing pressure to take the movement’s courses. [...]

On May 29th, Scientologist Stephen Brackett, 54, committed suicide by jumping off the Highway 1 Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur Coast of California at around 5:30 a.m. [1] He left behind a son and daughter. According to The Monterey County Herald, “there were no indications of foul play, and friends and relatives of Brackett said he was despondent because of financial troubles with his business.” I had worked for Brackett for two years starting in 2000. He was a Scientology ...

The body of a Los Angeles man, who apparently leaped to his death from the Highway 1 Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur Coast, was discovered Thursday. A hiker found Stephen Brackett, 54, about 5:30a.m., said Dan Robison, a detective with the Monterey County Sheriff's Coroner division. Brackett, who was supposed to be visiting friends, disappeared Sunday. Robison said Brackett died from injuries suffered after the nearly 200-foot fall from the bridge. There are no indications of foul play, and friends ...

CLEARWATER — Taking on the Church of Scientology in court is like picking a fight with the Russian army. When attacked, the church defends itself aggressively, wearing down opponents with a barrage of litigation while peering into their personal lives. Ken Dandar knows this better than anyone. In the 7-year-long Lisa McPherson case, the Tampa lawyer and the church waged one of the most grueling, fiercely contested legal battles in Tampa Bay history. The wrongful death lawsuit became intensely acrimonious, with ...

CLEARWATER — Police investigated the role Scientology played in the suicide of a troubled young man two years ago, but did not conclude church members forced him off his antidepressant medication or contributed to his death. Last week, the mother of Kyle Brennan filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Scientology's Clearwater-based Flag Service Organization and three Scientologists, claiming they took away Brennan's medication. The suit names the boy's father, Thomas Brennan, as a defendant; along with Denise Gentile, who is the ...

CLEARWATER — A mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, its Flag Service Organization and three parishioners, claiming they brought about her son's death by denying him access to his antidepression medication. Among the three parishioners named as defendants: Denise Gentile, the twin sister of the church's current worldwide leader, David Miscavige, as well as her husband, Gerald Gentile. The lawsuit stems from the death of Kyle T. Brennan, 20, who shot himself in the head ...