POLICE PROBE CHILDREN OF GOD SEX CULT
Detectives have launched an investigation into a religious sex cult operating in Scotland, we can reveal today.
Police Scotland confirmed an inquiry into the Children of God cult, which operated around the country in the 1980s and ’90s.
The inquiry can be revealed just weeks after Alexander Watt, the first British member of the cult to stand trial for child sex abuse, was convicted in Scotland.
In a harrowing interview, his daughter Verity Carter today breaks her silence to reveal her years of abuse in Children of God communities around Scotland.
The cult was founded in 1960s California by David Berg, whose teachings encouraged sexual relations between children and adults. He died in 1994 while on the run from the FBI.
Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal yesterday confirmed an “ongoing investigation” into the Children of God.
Police are investigating a religious sex cult operating in Scotland in the 1980s and 1990s, we can reveal.
Senior officers confirmed claims of sexual assaults on women and children by members of the Children of God sect are being probed.
Their inquiry can be revealed today as a survivor of the cult breaks her silence after her father became the first member to be convicted of child abuse in Britain.
Verity Carter has bravely given up her anonymity to reveal her years of torment in the cult where she was repeatedly abused.
Ms Carter, 38, told how the children in the cult were ordered to conceal their ordeal. She said: “We had to present ourselves as happy smiley children who loved God, nothing else, but unspeakable things were being done to us.”
Her father Alexander Watt, 68, of Ayrshire, was sentenced at Paisley Sheriff Court last month after admitting four charges of sexually abusing Verity and another child. The father of 10 was given 240 hours of community work, ordered to attend a rehabilitation course and placed on the Sex Offenders Register.
Prosecutor David Mcdonald said: “Publicly available information of the organisation, which is also supported by the complainers and witnesses in this case, suggest this was a ‘sex cult’. The organisation believed in ‘free love’. There appears to have been no strictures on sex, regardless of age or relationship.”
Defence lawyer Joe Barr said: “His plea of guilty is sincere, regretful, and apologetic. He left the cult in 1989.”
Expert Ian Haworth, of the Cult Information Centre, said: “This is the first criminal prosecution of the Children of God members I have heard of but hopefully not the last.”
Police Scotland’s senior child abuse officer, Detective Chief Superintendent Lesley Boal, said: “Due to an ongoing investigation into reports linked to the Children of God group we are unable to make any specific comment.
“We would encourage anybody who has been the victim of abuse to contact the police.
“Within our local and national child abuse investigation units we have specialist officers who will listen and robustly investigate reports of child abuse no matter who was involved, where it took place or when it happened.”