Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Northampton, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom · 2017

United Kingdom: Jesus Army 'transient member' convicted of indecent assault and gross indecency against boys sharing a communal dormitory

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Jesus Army community member sharing communal dormitory living with the child victims

Organization

Jesus Army / Jesus Fellowship Church

Spiritual nexus

The court heard the assaults happened opportunistically on walks or in the dormitory the boys shared with Perkins as fellow sect members — the communal structure of shared, unsupervised living the Jesus Army's doctrine mandated is what put the children in his reach and let him instruct them not to talk about it.

  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2017-03-24 · guilty plea and sentencing

    Northampton Crown Court, England. Nigel Perkins, 56, of Penzance, Cornwall, pleaded guilty at Northampton Crown Court to three counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency with a child under 14, committed over six years during the 1980s while he and his victims were members of the Jesus Army. He was sentenced to three years in prison and made subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender, arrested as part of the Northamptonshire Police Operation Lifeboat investigation into abuse within the sect.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • shared dormitory and communal-living arrangements bringing adult and child members into unsupervised proximity
  • convinced victims not to disclose the abuse, causing long-lasting emotional damage per the sentencing court

Primary record

Sources

local newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report Northampton Chronicle and Echo: 'Jesus Army sex offender who was based in Northamptonshire sentenced for string of indecent acts directed at children in 1980s'.

Local court report naming Perkins, the guilty plea, charges and sentence.

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