Alleged perpetrators and people accused of covering up historic abuse within the Jesus Army may receive significant payments under plans to divide the movement’s remaining assets, survivors and court documents say.
Trust documents seen by the BBC indicate the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust (JFCT), which is winding up the affairs of the Jesus Army or Jesus Fellowship Church, has about £25 million left to distribute after earlier compensation payments. Survivors described proposals for final distributions to loyal former members as "sickening" and said they risk rewarding people they accuse of abuse.
The trust has already run a redress scheme that paid a total of £7.7 million to 601 people who claimed they suffered sexual, physical or emotional abuse while living in the fellowship’s communal houses. Claimants said most were children when the abuse occurred. The scheme was largely funded by insurers and is understood to have cost the trust about 5% of its total asset value, prompting survivors to call the awards inadequate.
The Jesus Fellowship was set up by the late pastor Noel Stanton at Bugbrooke Chapel in Northamptonshire in 1969. It grew into a communal evangelical movement with businesses and dozens of properties. In 2017, documents showed the fellowship’s total assets were worth about £58.6 million, including 55 large houses that have since been sold.
Only 172 people who remained members until a decision to close the movement in May 2020 are guaranteed to benefit from the trust’s assets. As part of the winding-up process, those listed beneficiaries will vote on whether to expand the pool of potential recipients, a step that survivors fear could include accused abusers.
A review of compensation claims identified 539 alleged perpetrators of abuse within the church, about one sixth of the total membership, including 162 former leaders. Given the loyalty many long-term members showed to the movement, the BBC said it was likely some former leaders were among the listed beneficiaries.
Survivors said the possibility that alleged abusers might receive substantial payments is particularly bitter because many who left the movement young received small redress awards. Graham Lewis, 66, who said he was emotionally and sexually abused and left the fellowship in 1996, received £25,000 under the scheme. "It doesn't compensate for the harm I suffered," he said, adding that those who remained had been "trying to protect themselves and feather their own nests." Becky Ayres, who said she joined the community at age eight and endured regular corporal punishment, said she was paid £14,000 and called the existence of leftover funds "massively insulting."
Acting for the trustees, lawyers sought permission in a July hearing at the High Court to press ahead with final distributions and to draw a line under unresolved claims. Chancery Master Karen Shuman ordered that victims or others with unresolved claims must make themselves known by 16 October, after which they would permanently lose the ability to make further claims. The court directed that, once remaining claims are dealt with, the trust may proceed to the final stages of winding up and dissolution.
The JFCT said trustees had acted "in accordance with the trust deed," and stressed they had been "acutely conscious of the traumatic, abusive and adverse experiences suffered in the church and community." A trust spokesperson said trustees had sought to engage sensitively and meaningfully with beneficiaries and others who had an interest in winding up the trust.
The trust declined to disclose how many named beneficiaries have been accused of abuse or cover-up, citing confidentiality and the fact that many allegations to the redress scheme were made in strict confidence. The BBC reported that some listed beneficiaries have already received more than £20 million in returns on capital investments, cash advances and other payments.
Northamptonshire Police said it was engaging with allegations referenced in the redress scheme but that no new prosecutions had been launched. To date, at least 10 people have been convicted of indecent assaults or other offences committed while living in Jesus Army communities; several other defendants faced acquittals.
Survivors' groups said the broadcast of a BBC documentary, Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army, had prompted dozens more potential victims to come forward. They urged the trustees to allocate the remaining funds primarily to survivors rather than to people who stayed in the fellowship until the end. The trustees have said they will follow the procedures set out by the court and the trust deed.
The legal timetable set by the court will determine when the trust can move to final distributions and dissolution. Survivors and campaigners said the prospect that people accused of abuse could be beneficiaries adds urgency to calls for clarity and for remaining funds to be used to support victims.
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