Former priest convicted of rape and indecent assaults after abuse of congregation members

Former Church of England priest Chris Brain has been convicted of raping one woman and committing four indecent assaults against three others, following a retrial at Inner London Crown Court. The 69-year-old had already been convicted of 17 indecent assaults in August 2025. The retrial followed a previous jury’s inability to reach verdicts on five further counts.

Brain will be sentenced later this year and has been told he faces a custodial sentence. The cases arose from his leadership of the Nine O’Clock Service, a Sheffield congregation that attracted hundreds of young people during the 1980s and 1990s. The service combined electronic music, video, dancing, environmental activism and Christian worship, drawing crowds of up to 600 people before moving from St Thomas’s church to the larger Ponds Forge leisure centre.

Prosecutors said Brain used his authority over the community to obtain sexual contact from women. Jurors heard that he summoned members to “put him to bed” through sensual massages, sometimes stripping to his underwear and expecting kissing or sexual touching. Women told the court they feared rejection or spiritual consequences if they refused.

One said that displeasing Brain was treated as displeasing God. Former members also described a demanding community in which volunteers worked without pay, some members donated substantial sums and people were encouraged to distance themselves from relatives outside the group. Robert Warren, the vicar who initially oversaw the service, told an earlier trial that he came to see controlling and “cult-like” elements in the movement.

The court also heard allegations that Brain lived comfortably while other members made sacrifices. The convictions conclude the latest stage of a prolonged legal downfall for a preacher whose movement had once been praised for attracting young people to church. Brain’s sentencing is expected to take place later this year.