What Alex Barnes-Ross told East Grinstead councillors about Scientology abuses

[Today’s guest post is by Alex Barnes-Ross]

2.45pm. East Court. East Grinstead. Suited and booted, documents in hand. It’s showtime.

Today, after five months of back-and-forth with East Grinstead Town Council over their close association with the Church of Scientology, I finally set foot in the local government offices for the first time for a face-to-face meeting with two elected Councillors.

This whole saga began back in November when I had noticed the Mayor (and a number of other Councillors) had attended the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) event at Saint Hill, and I contacted the Council asking if it was indeed appropriate to accept a £50,000 cheque on behalf of a charity, considering the numerous pending lawsuits and claims filed against Scientology and its elusive leader David Miscavige.

From the offset, I was clear in my demands: I wanted the opportunity to spend an hour or two with the Council to brief them on Scientology’s policy of ‘Safe Pointing,’ and provide evidence as to why they should perhaps reconsider their close relationship with the so-called Church. My request was denied and on January 8, 2024, I felt I had no option but to pose a question to the Mayor at a public council meeting. After briefly summarising a traumatic event that happened during my time in Scientology, I asked the Mayor: “What are the Council doing to safeguard vulnerable adults, and particularly children from abuse at Saint Hill?”

I was shot down, asked to stop speaking publicly and to refrain from commenting on the matter on social media. On 29 January, four other members of the public posed questions to the Council relating to the role they have played in legitimising Scientology and enabling the abuse that is going on right now, as we speak, in East Grinstead.

The Council’s response was to redact the minutes to both meetings and cut out the entire public questions portion of the YouTube recordings that had been uploaded to their official YouTube account. I was furious, and outlined in my complaint: By censoring us, you are furthering the aims of Scientology.

And so began the complaints procedure. The Council’s argument was that in order to protect themselves from legal repercussions (being sued by Scientology for defamation or slander, by publishing allegations of abuse), the meeting minutes and YouTube recordings were redacted. However, instead of removing just the portions that contained personal stories of abuse at Saint Hill, they had completely removed the entirety of the public question time – and all mention of Scientology.

Today’s hearing was scheduled to last no more than an hour and 45 minutes – “We are expecting the meeting to conclude no later than 4.30pm,” I was told by the Deputy Town Clerk this morning. The meeting actually overran by an hour and twenty minutes and we didn’t end up leaving East Court until after 6pm.

The complaints procedure is simple: I make my case, the Council makes theirs, we discuss, and then leave the room while the panel deliberate. We are then invited back into the room to hear whether a decision had been made, or whether they need further time to respond; in which case I could expect a written reply within 7 days.

I opened today’s proceedings with a statement. I wanted to be firm in my demands, and to provide zero doubts as to why this issue goes beyond just a disgruntled member of the public; this is a local issue of national importance.

I’d like to begin with my apologies for rescheduling our previously scheduled date for this hearing due to illness, and thank you for the opportunity to meet with me today.

Before getting in to the substantive portion of my complaint, I think it’s important to first take a step back and look at how and why we’ve ended up here today to provide context as to why I made the complaint in the first place.

The Church of Scientology has a well evidenced history of fraudulent activity internationally – most notably in France where Scientology has been found guilty of organised fraud twice, and most recently in Hungary, only last year.

In 1979, a number of Scientology executives were fined and served prison sentences after it was found that up to 5,000 operatives had infiltrated 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates across the globe in a campaign called ‘Operation Snow White,’ which currently stands as the largest infiltration of the US government in its history. It was orchestrated from the Church of Scientology’s headquarters at Saint Hill, here in East Grinstead.

As a former Scientologist myself, I can speak from first-hand experience as to the abuse, manipulation and underhand tactics employed by Scientology here in the UK. All of the staff you see working at Saint Hill are part of the elite ‘Sea Organisation’ and have signed one-billion-year contracts, dedicating their eternity to working for the church – in this life, and all future lives. They are expected to work 14 to 18 hour days, 7 days a week with no time off, are not allowed to leave the property without permission and are paid just £50 a week. Stephen Jones, who is with me today, was once such a worker. Staff at Saint Hill are subject to harsh punishments and hard manual

labour for not complying with the rules, including restrictions to diet and sleep. They are, for all intents and purposes, modern slaves.

Since speaking out about my personal experiences in Scientology, a number of East Grinstead residents have contacted me with concerns about the Town Council’s involvement with Scientology; some of whom are former Scientologists, some of whom have children or family members currently working at Saint Hill, and many of whom have had no Scientology experience whatsoever but are concerned at the increasing presence of Scientology at Town Council events. Scientology has a well documented history of harassing, intimidating, and bullying critics and former members into silence under a policy called ‘Fair Game.’ Bonnie Woods, who is a former East Grinstead resident, won a harassment case against the Church in the early 2000s; numerous documentaries and news articles have reported on how Scientology engages in nefarious attempts to muzzle those who speak out against it and I personally have been the subject to a prolonged and sustained campaign of harassment since I began sharing my story online about a year ago.

Their goal is to control the narrative and as per policy “destroy by any means necessary” its enemies.

When it comes to its relationship with East Grinstead Town Council, Scientology’s policy ‘The Safe Point’ clearly sets out the goal is not to provide a benefit to the community, or to enhance the life of local citizens, but to bring opinion leaders and government officials under their “control.” HCOPL Ethics and Personnel is a policy letter written by founder L. Ron Hubbard in which he clearly lays out Scientology’s opinion of local politicians: “too deficient in imagination to provide real jobs.”

East Grinstead Town Council is being fooled, deceived, and played by an organisation that is currently abusing people under its very noses.

Considering Scientology’s sole purpose for engaging with any level of contact with the Council is to bring you under their control, it was greatly concerning to see the Mayor and other Councillors so quickly and effortlessly jump to defend Scientology, and label me a “vexatious bully” — when I have only ever asked a single question at a single Town Council meeting, and submitted 4 FOI requests.

The Council’s false narrative that I have instigated some form of campaign to disrupt council meetings, bully Councillors and cause distress is completely and utterly false, and no evidence has been provided by the Council to back up these claims.

My purpose for raising concerns with the Council was because the undue influence Scientology are attempting to assert over the Council is an important, local issue of national significance. Although the Council is not the authority responsible for investigating abuse, it does have a duty of care when it comes to safeguarding – and until last week, it did not even have a safeguarding policy.

The question I asked at the Council meeting was regarding what the Council is doing to protect and safeguard its citizens from abuse. I did not make any allegations and the question was entirely within the Council’s remit, as evidenced by the safeguarding policy you have now implemented. By censoring the public record and redacting my question – and all mention of Scientology – from the official meeting minutes, and uploaded recording on YouTube, the Council is forwarding Scientology’s aim of silencing its victims. The Council has shown zero compassion toward me or the other survivors who have so bravely spoken out, and it has taken great effort on my part to even have this complaint heard by Councillors who do not appear in Scientology promotional videos, talking about how wonderful they are and how close their relationship is to the Council. I am not complaining because I want the Council to investigate, or to take action against Scientology – it is simply not the Council’s role to do this.

However, I do feel the Council’s response to my very valid concerns has been completely inappropriate. The Council has engaged in victim-blaming and the emotional and mental anguish this whole situation has caused is nothing but distressing.

I would like for the Council to recognise the distress it has caused to me and my fellow survivors and victims who have also spoken at Council meetings, and to issue a formal apology. I would also like for the Council to agree to the one thing I have been asking for since November – the opportunity to brief the Town Council on why this is an important issue, so that elected officials are well informed before making any decisions in the future relating to supporting Scientology. So far, the Council has been more than happy to spend close to a hundred hours at Scientology events, listening to their propaganda and recording promotional videos for them – but refuse to spend an hour with a single ex-Scientologist to hear the impact the cult has had on their lives. I’d like the Council to formally request Scientology remove any clips of Councillors and/or former Mayors from their promotional materials.

And finally, I would like for the Council to consider reviewing its current approach to accepting invitations to events, charity donations and volunteers from the Church of Scientology. I am not asking for the Council to rule or make any decisions on its so-called religious beliefs, but I would like the Council to fully review the evidence I have supplied today and consider whether it is right to engage with an organisation which is so evidently attempting to assert undue influence on the Council.

Thank you

I had requested that in the interest of fairness, my complaint was not heard by Council members “who currently feature in Scientology propaganda videos testifying their appreciation and support for the organisation.” Out of the 16 councillors who form the entirety of East Grinstead Town Council, I understand only four met the criteria.

Councillors Craig Pond and Tracey Hughes, who are relatively new Councillors, have thus far stayed relatively silent on the developing cultruption scandal and, as far as I am aware, have never attended an event at Saint Hill. In complete contrast to the bitter and cold welcome I received from the Town Clerk Julie Holden, Cllrs. Pond and Hughes were warm, friendly, and sat patiently while I made my case and diligently made notes. They asked questions that indicated to me they were not just looking at today’s hearing as a matter of formal procedure, but genuinely wanted to hear my complaint and seek to find a resolution. It was the first time I felt ‘heard’ by East Grinstead Town Council since this all began five months ago.

Due to the Clerk being involved in some elements of the complaint, the Council was represented by the Town Clerk from the next town along (Burgess Hill) and I was accompanied by former Sea Org staffer and fellow activist Stephen Jones, who also happens to be a local resident. After reviewing the complaint, portions of the 1,000 pages of evidence I had supplied (which included OSA policies, letters obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and government reports warning on the dangers of Scientology) and having the Clerk’s statement read out, the panel started deliberating at 16:35. We were invited back just under an hour later at 17:25. I had fully expected the Panel to come back and make full use of the seven days they are technically afforded to respond to the complaint, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear we were going to get a response today.

On 6 March – well after the Council had redacted both the minutes and the video recordings – the Council were advised by the Sussex Association of Local Councils “that part of the recording where there was allegation of illegal activity in public questions should be removed from the publicly available version.” Based on this, and the advice of their lawyers, the Council today decided that they were in fact correct in their decision to redact the meeting minutes and YouTube upload.

However, the redaction was incorrectly applied. The panel came to the conclusion that the only part that should have been redacted was my personal testimony, which it sees as an “allegation.” The questions asked (and answers received) should not, the panel concluded, have been removed from the public record.

The Council also ruled that for consistency, the same also applies to the meeting that took place on 29 January, during which Danielle Chamberlin bravely told her story of being locked in the chain locker aboard the Apollo by L. Ron Hubbard and was later raped as a teenager at Stonelands. This portion, according to the council, was right to be redacted as it too could be considered an allegation, however the question that followed – and the three others asked by members of the public, should not have been struck from the record.

Furthermore, the panel admitted that in light of the evidence presented and the case I put forward, there were “a lot of learnings” and a number of recommendations will be made to “tighten and enhance policies, and create new procedures” to ensure victims and survivors are not discouraged from speaking out. The specifics of these recommendations will be announced in due course, but I got the impression Councillors Pond and Hughes were genuinely concerned at how the situation had been handled and are personally invested to ensure the Council makes the necessary changes to its policies.

The panel did not, I was told, have the authority to issue a formal written apology to those who had been censored and the survivors affected. However, they assured me they will be making a recommendation to the full Council that an apology is issued, and will also suggest the Council contacts the Church of Scientology to formally request the removal of any current Town Councillors from their promotional materials who may be seen to support or validate the organisation.

It will also be recommended that a meeting is arranged in which I can brief, educate, and inform the Town Council on Scientology’s Safe Pointing and Fair Game policies so that they can make better decisions in the future as to the impact of any future association or engagements

So: a partial victory for free speech, but we will have to wait and see if the wider Council agree to implement the panel’s recommendation that an apology is issued and changes are made to prevent the Council inadvertently enabling (and legitimising) Scientology’s abusive practices.

This is only just the beginning. I’m on war footing, and I’m not fucking about.

— Alex Barnes-Ross

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

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