A priest has denied sexually assaulting women in a “cult” within the Church of England, telling a court there was “nothing wrong” with members of his congregation giving him massages in his bedroom.
Chris Brain, 69, accepted he had sexual contact with some members of the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS), a group which he led in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s, but insisted this was always consensual.
The former musician has already been convicted of sexual offences against “numerous” women, a jury at Inner London Crown Court has been told.
Brain, of Wilmslow in Cheshire, is being retried on a charge of rape and four counts of indecent assault after jurors last year were unable to reach verdicts.
He led NOS – described in court as a “groundbreaking” church service incorporating live music, “stunning” visuals and progressive theology – between 1986 and 1995.
The group began at St Thomas Church in Crookes and swelled in popularity to attract hundreds of people to its services, eventually moving to a new base at Ponds Forge before imploding amid allegations about Brain’s conduct.
Prosecutors have accused Brain of “purposely creating a cult” in which he abused young women who had become emotionally dependent on his approval.
Some of Brain’s alleged victims had been assigned to a “homebase team” which looked after the priest, his wife and their young daughter and would be called to give him massages in his home, the court has heard.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Brain said the women had been “close friends” who “would want to give me a massage” when he arrived home late and this had become sexual only “very, very rarely”.
“It helped me with back tension and it was a way to meet people,” he told the court. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”
