CHILD ABUSE,TORTURE & MIND CONTROL
Her claims are wrenching. In court papers obtained by In Touch, a former Scientologist alleges that from ages 6 to 12 she was denied proper schooling and forced to work and clean from 8 a.m. to midnight under “military-like conditions” at the church’s international spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, Fla. At 10, she claims, she was part of a twisted training ritual where she was repeatedly subjected to “vulgar and sexually explicit” harassment from adults who’d punish her if she reacted. At 15, she alleges, she became a “victim of human trafficking” by top members who moved her to California and forced her into “involuntary servitude” and at times “held her against her will.”
That’s just the beginning. These and more shocking claims were made public in a lawsuit filed in LA on
June 18 by a team of eight victims’ rights attorneys on behalf of an unnamed Jane Doe against the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, 59. The lawsuit describes the controversial religion she finally left in 2017 as “a cult built on mind control” that has for decades engaged in child abuse and torture as “members are isolated from the outside world” and subjected to “physical, verbal, psychological,
emotional and/or sexual abuse and/or assault.” Although a Scientology rep denies all the allegations in the lawsuit, it could be very bad news for the church — and its most high-profile and ardent member, Tom Cruise. “It’s a direct attack on Tom, of course,” believes Scientology expert Tony Ortega. As the “face of Scientology,” notes a source, “this could be his worst nightmare and destroy his image.”
DARK SECRETS
Jane Doe served as Miscavige’s personal steward at Scientology’s Gold Base in California seven days a week before she was banished for three months to “the Hole,” trailers used to isolate members accused of ethics violations, claims the lawsuit. “So she would likely have had some interaction with or knowledge of his close friend Tom,” says the source. “The big question is: If these claims are true, what did Tom know?”
Tom, 56, is so devout, the source believes he’s unlikely to distance himself from the church he loves. (He even now lives down the street from the Clearwater headquarters.) But according to Ortega, more “amazing” lawsuits are coming. At some point, says the source, “if the church is indeed guilty of some abuse, Tom is going to be in a very difficult position. After all, he’s the poster boy for Scientology.” ◼
You don’t question anything, period” — ORTEGA ON ONE OF SCIENTOLOGY’S CORE TENETS