Chris Brain, the priest behind Sheffield’s controversial Nine O’Clock Service, has been convicted of rape and sexually assaulting members of the congregation at services known for nightclub-style lighting and performances by scantily dressed women.
The 69-year-old was found guilty of one rape charge and four counts of sexual assault involving three women who attended the Nine O’Clock Service, known as NOS, during the 1980s and 1990s.
Prosecutors said Brain exploited his authority within the movement to abuse women, including by instructing some of them to massage him at his home.
The women told the court they felt pressured to comply because Brain was treated by followers as “the mouthpiece of God”.
One former associate likened him to “Jimmy Savile at the BBC”, saying NOS’s appeal among young people had made Brain the Church of England’s “golden boy”.
Brain denied the allegations, maintaining that any sexual contact had been consensual or had never taken place. After the verdict, however, the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was not consent. It was forced submission.”
He now faces the prospect of imprisonment, having previously been convicted of 17 indecent assaults against nine women.
The latest convictions bring the total number of sexual offences for which Brain has been found guilty to 22, involving 13 women.
One woman who accused him described the former priest as “Andrew Tate with a dog collar”.
Chris Brain stood trial at Inner London Crown Court over sexual offences including rape, after already being convicted of numerous attacks on women
Tim Clark KC, prosecuting, told jurors that NOS initially offered energetic services featuring live music and elaborate light shows before becoming a cult-like organisation centred on Brain’s authority.
He said the priest recruited members of his congregation—many of them young women who wore lingerie or revealing outfits—to join a “homebase” group responsible for meeting his personal needs.
Their responsibilities included helping care for Brain’s wife, Lynn, and the couple’s baby daughter.
Members of Brain’s inner circle were also allegedly expected to hand over their earnings to a shared “common purse”. In one case, a young married couple were persuaded to sell their home and give the money to the movement.
The court heard that other followers were repeatedly encouraged to distance themselves from relatives and friends at Brain’s direction.
Mr Clark said NOS had initially presented itself as a modern Christian movement offering a positive alternative.
“In truth, NOS became a closed and controlled group which the defendant dominated,” he told the jury.
He added that Brain first abused his influence as the group’s leader and later used his position as an ordained priest to sexually assault a “staggering number” of women from the congregation.
Brain, now 69, was once the high-profile leader of the Nine O’Clock Service, a late-night church gathering designed to resemble a nightclub
The prosecution said the Church of England initially regarded NOS as a “stunning success story”.
It appeared ‘ground-breaking,’ he said, because the high-energy services were ‘visually stunning’ and were popular with young people, many of whom were scantily dressed, he said.
The prosecutor said Brain was ‘the central figure in a cult, he decided the rules, he designed the punishments’.
Mr Clark said Brain was aware that the women in his close circle ‘feared ostracisation more than anything’.
Prosecutor Mr Clark said: ‘The Crown will submit that the defendant knew, and you can be sure he knew, that all these women did not perform sexual acts with him willingly or consensually.
‘But rather, were submitting to acts which, but for the situation the defendant had created, would never have happened.’
He added: ‘Any capacity they (the complainants) had to consent had been removed by the domineering nature of the defendant, by his control over their entire lives and by their absolute terror of being ostracised if they did not submit.’
The court heard how some women said they were ‘groomed’ by Brain, and that ‘no-one was able to stand up to’ him. None of the women can be identified for legal reasons.
Brain will be sentenced at a later date
Another complainant said that Brain was a ‘man of God’ whom she could not question, and that she was ‘terrified’ of him.
One woman described how she was ‘absolutely terrified’ when Brain forced her to strip naked while she massaged him and he fondled her breasts. Brain was married at the time.
Giving evidence from behind a screen, the woman told jurors at his trial: ‘I don’t feel I had the choice (to say no).
‘My brain was frozen, he (Brain) was telling me how to think, he used God to, I suppose, mess with my mind.
‘Because everyone else around me was telling me how wonderful he was, he was the mouthpiece of God, what he was doing was in my best interests.’
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Asked to reflect on her overriding experiences with Brain, she said: ‘If I could turn the clock back and never have met the guy, I would want that.
‘Because my response to what’s happened to me, my experience being on the receiving end of a man like Chris Brain is I would never like it to happen to anybody.
‘I was treated appallingly. It was only because I’ve got a very strong mind that I didn’t buckle under, really.’
At his ordination in 1991, large sums of money were spent on robes for Brain to wear which had been worn by actor Robert De Niro in 1986 film The Mission, the court heard.
The prosecutor said that Brain was confronted by members of the church in the 1990s and told it was believed he had abused up to 40 women.
But Brain replied: ‘I thought it was more.’
Brain told jurors he might have been a ‘hypocrite’ but denied sexually abusing women.
He also denied NOS was a cult, with him as its leader.
Following his conviction, one of his victims compared Brain with influencer Andrew Tate, who faces rape and sex trafficking charges, which he denies.
She said: ‘It’s over 30 years since we went to the Bishop of Sheffield to tell him about Chris Brain and his emotional, financial, spiritual and sexual abuse of us.
‘That it has taken 30 years to get to here should be a cause of great shame for the Church of England.
‘We have spent the last 30 years living with our unresolved trauma. We felt so much shame that we didn’t even speak about it to each other, such was the depth of the coercive control that we had experienced.
‘When finally we were asked by South Yorkshire Police to speak about what had happened, we at last could “allow shame to change sides”.
‘Shame on Chris Brain – an earlier version of Andrew Tate with a dog collar. Shame on him for his bullying, his mental cruelty, his misogyny, his sick obsession with rape, his manipulation of good, kind women and men who just wanted to create a better world.’
Julie Moss, senior crown prosecutor for CPS Yorkshire & Humberside said: ‘For years Chris Brain embarked on a disturbing campaign of manipulation and abuse – intimidating (NOS) members and isolating them from their friends and family to ultimately satisfy his sexual desires.
‘Brain framed the Nine O’Clock Service as a progressive force for good, engaged with the local community and involved in environmental concerns. He presented himself as a spiritual leader and a “man of God”, who existed to guide and mentor his followers.
‘However, behind the mask was a man who was repeatedly abusing several young members of his service.
‘Victims were isolated from their loved ones, made financially and emotionally dependent on the group, and made to believe that resistance to Brain’s sexual advances reflected their own personal or spiritual failings.
‘This was not consent. It was forced submission, caused by the culture of fear and dependency Brain had deliberately created.’
Praising the witnesses who came forward to give evidence to the court – in same cases, twice – she added: ‘Today’s result would not have been possible without the immense bravery of the women who came forward and gave evidence about the deeply traumatic abuse they suffered.
‘Their courage has been central to securing these convictions and today I pay tribute to them.’
Detective Superintendent Eleanor Welsh, senior Investigating Officer, said: ‘I’d firstly like to put on record my gratitude towards all of the courageous women who made reports and put their trust and support behind our investigation.
‘These women have waited three or four decades for these verdicts and bravely relived their ordeals in a bid to secure justice.
‘Due to Brain’s continued denial of the offences, the victims – who have already been through so much – had to ensure a second trial. Furthermore, victims from the first trial bravely returned as witnesses to support the prosecution.
‘Brain is a devious and arrogant sexual predator who caused lasting harm to these women.
‘While I am pleased with the guilty verdicts, I know for the victims it can never take away what Brain did to them.
‘However, I hope that it brings some comfort to know they have had a voice, they have been heard, and the jury has accepted that Brain is a serial sex offender.’
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon who acts for Brain’s victims said: ‘Brain was a serial abuser, a rapist, a fraud and a charlatan.
‘With these verdicts today he has finally been held to account.
‘I salute the bravery of the women who gave evidence against him – this is a vindication of their courage.
But we mustn’t forget that he was fast tracked to ordination, supported, promoted and protected by the Church of England.
‘A full accounting of their role in this appalling saga is long overdue, and must now follow.’
Her Honour Judge Freya Newbery will sentence Brain at a later date.
