Anonymous fought ‘disconnection’ — but Scientology never stops destroying families

On Tuesday, the 17th anniversary of Anonymous declaring war on the Church of Scientology will arrive, and we wanted to mark the occasion with a story that recently came up thanks to Alex Barnes-Ross.

Over at his website, Alex posted an interesting new flier from Scientology UK, which celebrated that country’s top 50 donors to new “Ideal Orgs.”

This is a separate list from the annual IAS donors, that we keep such a close eye on, but as you look over the list, you will see some familiar names, like American donor Trish Duggan and the Emranis of Clearwater, Florida.

But it was the couple in the number one position that caught the eye of one of our readers, who dropped us a note about it.

David and Becky Fryer, our reader said, were very well known at the Manchester org, and had a story that became intertwined with Anonymous during its early days.

“The story of Becky Fryer is heartbreaking,” Alex answered when we asked him what he knew about it. “After being introduced to Scientology by her now husband David, her parents started to see changes in her behaviour and personality. Her stepfather Tony Leigh went to great lengths to save his daughter from harm and campaigned to get her out, which received tremendous support from the Anonymous movement. At one point, he involved his local Member of Parliament, and due to Becky’s initial refusal to disconnect from her family she was declared PTS and barred from servicing. However, in a classic Scientology OSA scheme, they managed to convince Tony that Becky had left the Church and he subsequently stopped protesting. But Becky never left at all and is now one of the cult’s top financiers in the UK. It’s a tale we see all too often: a family torn apart by Scientology’s harmful practice of disconnection. This is exactly why I, and many others, are campaigning for an end to this abusive practice and I will continue to fight for government officials to recognise OSA’s dirty tricks.”

Alex suggested that we ask Pete Griffiths about those demonstrations, when Becky’s parents joined the typically much younger mask-wearing Anonymous protesters.

“I met Tony Leigh at a protest in London and he impressed me with his verve and fire regarding his battle to save his daughter from Scientology. His catchphrase was Get Becky Out!” Pete says.

“After a few months of liaising with him he suddenly announced that he was no longer participating in protests as he had indeed, got Becky out. I was delighted, yet somewhat sceptical. I was willing to accept his decision — after all, protesting the most dangerous, malicious, and litigious cult in the world is not for everyone. Imagine my surprise when I found out that Becky had deceived her father and actually had not left the cult but simply told him that she had in order to get him to stop him from protesting and being troublesome. (I wasn't surprised, really.) I contacted Tony and he told me how this entire episode had left him feeling drained and exhausted and he was going to step away from the ‘struggle.’ It really had knocked him for six as it meant that his daughter had blatantly lied to him just to protect Scientology. He was not the man he used to be and I lost touch with him over the years and always considered this one of the more heartbreaking and callous examples of what Scientology can do to a happy, loving family.”

Mark Bunker, at his Xenu TV website, noted at the time that it was a story that tended to get lost in all of the international news about Anonymous and its war with Scientology.

In 2018, on the tenth anniversary of the incident that kicked off that battle, we wrote about the 2004 Tom Cruise video made by Scientology that got leaked and then was posted by Bunker on January 14, 2008 with the help of several others. When Scientology tried to take the video down, it inspired the Anonymous movement to turn its attention to the church, declaring war on January 21, 2008.

By February, mask-wearing young people were holding demonstrations outside of Scientology facilities around the world, including the Manchester org, where Tony Leigh and Becky’s mother Sue told their story to some of the protesters. Their persistence eventually prompted the Manchester org’s Executive Director, Antony Brinkman, to come out and talk to them, a pretty rare occurrence.

As Alex pointed out, with Tony and Sue persisting, and even getting their MP involved, Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs decided to pull a sneaky maneuver. They declared Becky “PTS” (a potential trouble source) because of her parents’ interference, making it look like the church wanted nothing to do with her. But it was just a ruse.

Here’s the letter that OSA UK’s Graeme Wilson sent to the MP, assuring him that there was nothing for anyone to do about a situation that didn’t even involve Scientology anymore…

Thank you for your letter of 24 November regarding your constituent Mr Tony Leigh, and my apologies for the delay in replying, due partly to my being out of the country when you sent the letter.

Tony Leigh's step-daughter, Rebecca Thurston, is known to me. She is a lovely person, a grown woman who last year successfully graduated from university, and I have no doubt she is completely capable of making her own decisions about her life.

A few years ago, Rebecca was introduced to Scientology by her fiancé, and then studied a few introductory courses in Scientology, which she found interesting and useful, by her own account.

However, her step-father, Tony Leigh, for reasons best known to himself apparently taken it upon himself to do anything within his power to persuade Rebecca to have nothing to do with Scientology, now or at any time in the future.

Such has been his opposition to her involvement, and in the interests of facilitating harmonious family relations, that the Church has suspended Rebecca's membership and participation in any Church services, by mutual agreement with her, until such time as her parents are no longer exerting such opposition, should that ever be the case.

Despite this, Mr Leigh has continued to insist that Rebecca is still somehow a member of the Church or held within its power, or some such idea, and demanded that the Church "release" her. So bizarre has this become that on one surreal occasion, Mr & Mrs Leigh were demonstrating outside our Church in Manchester, demanding Rebecca's release from Scientology, while Rebecca was sitting at the family home (where she was living) unable to spend the day with them as they were out demonstrating.

It is not within the Church's powers or role to control what Rebecca thinks about Scientology or to ask her to undertake that she will never wish to study Scientology in the future.

While this is all very much a family matter at this stage, I took the liberty of contacting Rebecca in regards to your letter and asked her if she would be willing to meet with you so you can ask her any questions for yourself, and she is more than happy to do this. She is also one of your constituents, so I suggest that this is the best next course of action. If that is acceptable to you, I will ask Rebecca if she could contact your constituency office to make an appointment.

Mr Leigh may not have mentioned to you that Mr Antony Brinkman met with him and his wife some months ago, and spent over an hour talking to them, attempting to allay their concerns, apparently to no avail.

Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Yours sincerely,

Graeme Wilson

As Pete explained, the ruse worked and convinced Becky’s parents to stop protesting. But she really hadn’t been kicked out of Scientology, and as we can see all these years later, she and her husband are now being celebrated as the biggest donors to Ideal Orgs in the entire country.

The lesson? From our perspective, Anonymous did great work and helped many people speak out against Scientology for the first time. But Scientology never gives up, and while Anonymous turned its attention elsewhere, Scientology continued its same policies of destroying families and extorting its members.

Still, it’s worth reflecting on the attention that Anonymous brought to these problems, and the way they made it safer for so many people to come forward.

We asked Wise Beard Man himself, Mark Bunker, to reflect on the anniversary, and he sent us a treat…

Anonymous was amazing. The tens of thousands who took to the streets around the world created not just an awareness of Scientology’s abuses but also gave former members confidence and support as they stepped forward with their stories. Behind the scenes they were also organizing to try to get action on various fronts, including revoking Scientology's tax exempt status and reuniting families torn apart by disconnection.

Scientology lied to Becky Fryer's parents? What a shock. If Scientology is talking to you, they are lying to you.

Going back to the early days of Project Chanology, after one of their early pickets, Tory Christman and I sat down with one of the organizers of the protest, Gareth Cales. We asked him to do a video and he was very reluctant, worried that the whole idea is to remain anonymous, and people could potentially be upset with him for doing so.

Tory and I coaxed him to do it, saying we didn't need to post it but it would be good to do. He gave us a brief interview which I never used because I thought he may have a point in being concerned about the group reaction. I myself went through some attacks, including ten pizzas showing up at my door one day. I wasn't there but my landlord lived next door and he called me to tell me the delivery guy was there. I was in my car heading up to L.A. for a protest at that moment and had to let them know it was a prank.

I also had a few days of non-stop insulting phone calls. I could tell it was just two kids doing it. I unplugged my phone and answering machine for a couple of days and they lost interest.

So, I had the interview of Gareth on tape but thought it was probably better not to post it. I found that video while recapturing all my old footage to upscale for YouTube and watching it again, I was surprised to see how forthcoming he was and willing to go on the record, so publishing it would not have been such a problem.

So here it is, 17 years later:

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