Investigation of one of Britain’s most derogatory defects

Hundreds of people are still shocked as a result of misconduct, which are now suffering from the hand-to-many-wheel movement. John Ironmongar, who investigated the Jesus Army Group before his closure five years ago, is telling his story to meet the director of a new BBC documentary series.

At first glance, the Jesus army established a “Happy-Clapi” church in the Northamptonshire rural areas, with two or three thousand members, a flare military style uniform and a rainbow fight with a fleet of buses.

The reality was very different.

In 2016, I started myself on a year journey to highlight myself one of Britain’s most derogatory defects.

There were already reports about suspicious practices and unemployed deaths, including a young man, whose body was found on a railway track.

But months later, on tea at the St. Pancris station, on the tea, a woman who ran away from the group as a teenager and wanted to be anonymous, revealed the actual scale of the loss that was caused by her.

“How many victims have contacted you?” I asked, perhaps an answer is expected in double figures.

“In an area of six or seven hundred,” he responded peacefully.

My mind was blown away. After two years of interview and investigation by the BBC, the BBC published our findings, which expanded the widespread misuse of children, and evidence of cover-up by senior leadership.

Church, formally known as Jesus Fellowship, Closed after one year,

In 2022, documentary director Elena Wood started her investigation into the Jesus army.

He spoke to more than 80 people as well as relatives and family members. The result is an entertaining, sometimes harsh, two-part film.

“I was often the first person she shared with her experiences and almost all were still shocked. It was a much more live process for her,” she says.

“One of what I was killed was that they would describe what we would know as sexual abuse, but would not understand it as that, or blame ourselves for it.

“And, as a filmmaker, I wanted to tell an audience that you don’t just leave a creed and move forward with your life, it can inform you everything about you; your decision; your way of thinking; your crime; your relationship;”.

Elena says that she is ready to challenge beliefs about the reasons that live in people’s faults.

She compares with the idea of quitting a domestic relationship, with the addition of leaving one’s family, friends, money, jobs and support systems, as well as underlying threat to going to hell.

For example, she says that a contributor, Nathan, “despite struggling to come up with the fact that he was ready and sexually harassed, admitted that he would probably return to the Jesus army if it reopened”.

• Details of help and support with child sexual abuse and sexual abuse or violence are available in UK BBC Action Line

Especially for children, life in many communal homes of creed across Central England was intense and full of danger.

About this One of the six was sexually abusedAccording to the review of the claims of loss of some 600 persons.

The children separated from their parents and often slept in Derm with drifters and drug addicts.

Many were subjected to daily beating and abolished long -term worship sessions with exorcism and recurrence of sins.

Hearing the accounts of the remaining people, he took an emotional toll on Elena.

She says, “I had just become a mother and was having a detailed conversation of two or three hours about misconduct, which sometimes included incest, and then my son would come from nursery, and all these mental pictures would be in my head,” she says.

“You are creating these relationships that include too much contact, too much assurance, and you are trying to do the right thing by all, so there is a lot to carry sometimes.”

After the dissolution of the Jesus army, the BBC revealed its founder, Noel Stanton with its five so -called motivated, covered the misuse of women and children through dealing with complaints.

A former Elder described the leader of the church as a “hunter pedophile” and handed me a file of the revelations accusing me of rape and sexual attacks.

But Stanton died in 2009, before he could respond to any claim.

Among Stanton, Elena says, “People were nervous with her and were in awe of her in equal measurements. The children were especially, completely nervous.”

But did Stanton’s creed always do evil, or did it start in some good and some evil?

“If I had to guess, I would later say,” Elena says.

“I think the more electricity noel had, the more control he felt that he had.

“But I think the biggest problem was not reporting misconduct; the victims were forgiven and often gaslight. There is no excuse for this.”

Elena is clear that many people who were in the Jesus army had positive experiences: “It was not terrible for everyone at all times, and we have to recognize that there are no black and white in the world”.

In a poignant scene in the documentary, David, a former elder who is a large -scale supporter, breaks into tears under Elena’s careful inquiries.

“She admits that she has to start from the place of believing that the people who pass are real, and this is the first time that any leader has ever said that from the church, so it was a very big moment,” she says.

The Jesus Fellowship Trust, which is curbing the Jesus army affairs, said it is from the misconduct that happened, and offered an unreserved apology to the affected people.

Last year, a prevention plan funded in part through insurance, hundreds of victims were paid an average loss at an average of £ 12,000.

BBC is on two inside Jesus army creed and BBC iPlayer 21:00 on Sunday 27 July at BST.

Podcast together, in detail: Jesus will launch at the army creed BBC feels On Monday 28 July.