The Electronic Telegraph 15 March 1995

Friend cleared of Scientology kidnapping

By John Steele, Courts Correspondent

I feel insulted, says woman as jury decides that she was brainwashed

A MAN who tried to remove a woman from the Church of Scientology was cleared of attempted kidnap yesterday after arguing that "brainwashing" by the cult had turned her into a robot without the ability to decide whether she consented or not to leaving.

Stephen Cooper's "victim", 23-year-old former shoe shop worker Miss Kathleen Wilson, told the jury that she was happy to be at the cult's headquarters at Saint Hill Castle in East Grinstead, East Sussex, and did not consent to being removed. The court also heard he had admitted to police he intended to "snatch her" against her will.

But Cooper, 27, who runs a newsagent's shop, was cleared at Lewes Crown Court of the charge by a jury which retired at 12.53pm, began their lunch at 1pm and returned with unanimous verdicts at 2pm.

His counsel, Mr John Tanzer, argued that, even though she claimed in court she did not consent to removal, it was possible her free will had been removed by the processes she had undergone in the cult and she did not have "sufficient intelligence and understanding" to decide if she consented.

'British justice has won today'

After the verdict, a delighted Cooper said: "I wasn't confident. I thought the evidence was against me but the jury was fantastic. In my eyes, British justice has won today."

Scientology officials took a different view, warning the verdict would act as a "green light" to those who wanted to remove members from sects. Miss Wilson, a former flatmate of Cooper, said: "I am outraged.

I feel insulted by the verdict. Instead of judging Stephen, they judged me. I said I wanted to stay at Saint Hill and I meant it. I was not brainwashed."

Mr Justice Hidden told the jury that Scientology was not on trial and that they did not have to decide if it was a cult or a religion.

The issue was Stephen Cooper's acts and intentions when he went to Saint Hill with another man on the night of Nov 6, 1992. To prove attempted kidnap, the Crown had to establish four elements - an attempt to remove her, that it was by force, that it was without lawful excuse and that she did not consent.

The first two elements were not challenged - Mr Cooper admitted to police he went to snatch her, "probably against her will", after being contacted by her mother - and the judge ruled he could not offer a defence of lawful excuse because that would require a belief that she faced physical danger. But the judge ruled that there could be a possible defence on the grounds of consent, even though Miss Wilson testified that she did not consent.

This enabled Mr Tanzer to tell the jury some of the evidence suggested a regime in which she was effectively enslaved and robbed of her free will.

'She was deprived of her own free will'

"Kathleen Wilson was a victim. She was deprived of her own free will and Stephen Cooper sought to rescue her. She never said she wanted to be rescued but we say, simply, that is because she couldn't. If a member of our society is turned into a robot, turned into a slave, is that person consenting? A robot is programmed as to what to say. The person underneath has been suppressed and enslaved."

Cooper, he said, was not a "malign kidnapper using unwarranted force to take away a damsel manifestly not in distress". Rather, he wanted to "put her in a position" to make her own free choice.

Outside court, Cooper, from Saltburn, Cleveland, said the last two years had been a nightmare. He planned to marry Miss Lorna Bowden, 23, the one-time close friend of Miss Wilson. "I was only interested in the welfare of Kathleen. We felt she had changed after joining them.

Lorna said she was always easily-led and that she had to look after her at school."

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"Liberty is my religion." -- Robert G. Ingersoll
http://www.norahjones.com

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