Jesus Fellowship (Jesus Army) Redress Scheme final report finds abuse endemic across community, names founder Noel Stanton among 539 accused

Proceedings

1. 2024-09-10 · official-finding; independent redress scheme final report

   Jesus Fellowship Redress Scheme (independent scheme established after the church's 2019 dissolution). The independently administered Redress Scheme published its final report on 10 September 2024 after processing 890 applications from 601 individuals and paying out approximately £7.761 million in compensation for abuse spanning the 1970s to the 2010s. The report identified 539 alleged abusers, with the Trust acknowledging responsibility for 264 of them, 61% of whom were former church leaders, and estimated that one in six children in the community were sexually abused. It recorded 31 separate incidents of abuse attributed to founder Noel Stanton and found that harm was not confined to a few leaders or a limited period but was systemic across the community's history.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• communal-living structure placing members, including children, inside households controlled by church leaders and elders
• doctrine binding members to the community and to leaders' spiritual authority, discouraging disclosure and outside reporting
• founder's charismatic and doctrinal authority shielding him and other leaders from accountability for decades