News › celebrity, Charities Commission, disconnection, Europe, Fair Game policy, Great Britain, John Sweeney, John Travolta, L. Ron Hubbard, Panorama, politics, Rehabilitation Project Force, Saint Hill, Suppressive Person, Sussex, Tom Cruise
Published on Friday 1st June 2007
It included an allegation that the church at its UK headquarters in East Grinstead, Sussex, took in young English people with a history of mental illness.
The document said the young members paid fees of £450 and £500 before being classified as trouble-makers and put out on the street after suffering breakdowns.
It also said the church created family discord and broke up marriages, referring to a six-year-old who was declared a “suppressive” because she would not leave her mother.
News › celebrity, Charities Commission, Europe, Great Britain, John Travolta, L. Ron Hubbard, London, Police, politics, Sweden, Tom Cruise
Published on Monday 11th December 2006
The controversial Church of Scientology has been granted a subsidy of more than £270,000 a year in public money, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
Scientology’s lawyers used European rulings and Government equality regulations to force the City of London corporation to grant an 80 per cent rates discount for its new centre near St Paul’s Cathedral. The “church”, it is believed, is now pressing to pay nothing at all.
The corporation confirmed that this discount was on the basis that Scientology is a “charity”, despite the fact that the Charity Commission has refused to register it. The discount, referred to as a “mandatory rate relief”, has been granted even though the Church of Scientology has estimated global assets of $398 million (£203 million), is supported by film stars including Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and was once described as “corrupt, sinister and dangerous” by a High Court judge.
For the past decade the Church of Scientology has battled with the Charities Commission to gain charitable status. In 1999 the commission ruled that it was not a religion and that there was no “public benefit arising out of the practice of Scientology” and turned down its application.
