u/UnlistedV

ARTICLE LINK: https://www.scientologybusiness.com/fair-game/scientology-demands-apology-and-threatens-the-times-newspaper-after-investigation-uncovers-uk-child-labour/?utm\_source=mailpoet&utm\_medium=email&utm\_source\_platform=mailpoet

The Church of Scientology has sent a threatening letter demanding the immediate retraction of an article published by The Times newspaper after an under cover reporter found children as young as 13 were working at their Edinburgh branch.

The investigation saw Times journalist Tom Ball join Scientology at the Hubbard Academy of Personal Independence (HAPI), the church’s branch in Edinburgh, and uncover a series of concerning practices including a teenager working as the ‘Medical Liaison Officer’ despite lacking any formal medical training and offering massage-like nerve assists on adults in private, unsupervised closed rooms. “A Times investigation has found that for the past two years the church has been engaging children as young as 13 to work alongside adults in administrative, training and recruitment roles” the article reads. “One teenage girl has a role which involves giving massages to adults, including male staff and members of the public. Scientology denies this.”

Amir Essalhi, who alerted The Times to the children working at Scientology’s Edinburgh branch shortly after leaving his role as an executive there earlier this year, told us “What I witnessed at the Hubbard Academy of Personal Independence was textbook child exploitation. Children were forced into gruelling 40+ hour workweeks as staff and Executives under coercive threats of Scientology’s ethics punishments and knowledge reports. Even more disturbing, and still practiced in Scientology today, 14 year old girls were locked in rooms with elderly men to administer nerve assists that involved intimate physical contact.”

“This child exploitation directly violates UK child employment laws and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, mirroring previous Victorian era factory abuse on a modern and global scale. When I reported this to Police Scotland, I was summarily dismissed, refused an investigation, and denied even an evidence link. I am speaking out so public outrage forces law enforcement worldwide to confront this international trafficking and abusive apparatus, protecting these children, and permanently shut down these operations”

The Times article describes how “the enrolment of children is believed to be the result of pressure from the movement’s global leadership to accelerate expansion.”

“There are about 25 “staff members” at Hapi, of which four are children below the age of 16.” It states. “Another girl, who recently turned 16, joined “staff” when she was 14. Two other children, aged 14, are also attending the church on a daily basis though are not believed to be on staff at present. With the exception of one girl, they are all registered by their parents as home-schooled, thereby allowing them to come to the church each day. Three children under 16 are living apart from their parents who are 450 miles south in East Grinstead, West Sussex, where its UK headquarters are based. The other children are the sons and daughters of longstanding members of the community in Scotland.”

Now, Scientology have hit back in a scathing letter to Times Editor Tony Gallagher demanding the article is retracted. The newspaper, the church claims, has “crossed a serious line” and “must answer the question its own published record now makes unavoidable: What material fact of public interest did Tom Ball obtain through this elaborate deception that The Times did not already possess and which could not have been obtained by legitimate journalistic means? That requires an answer. Not an assertion that The Times “stands by” its journalism. Not a general invocation of public interest. An answer.”

Sending an under-cover reporter to their Edinburgh branch amounts to “deception” and “religious bigotry”, Scientology spokesperson Graeme Wilson writes. “Would The Times infiltrate a mosque under a fabricated identity and build a national exposé around teenagers helping there? Would it secretly record worshippers in a synagogue and portray Jewish teenagers undertaking responsibilities in their religious community as the objects of sinister “recruitment”? Would regular participation by young Catholics in parish life become an undercover investigation into children being drawn into Church “staff”? The Times made the religion of these young people the reason its readers were instructed to regard their participation with suspicion. That is not merely slanted journalism. It is religious bigotry.”

According to Wilson, “Within hours of publication, the Church was vandalised. Police attended the premises, took a full statement and formally recorded the vandalism as a police incident.” He then threatens the paper, “The Times is therefore now on formal notice that the hostility the Church feared has already materialised.”

Police Scotland has been contacted for comment.

“We therefore require The Times to immediately withdraw the principal article, Ball’s accompanying first-person account and the associated podcast from publication, and cease their further distribution and promotion.”

ARTICLE LINK: https://www.thenational.scot/news/26460812.edinburgh-scientology-church-employing-children-give-massages/

CHILDREN as young as 13 are being recruited to work in a Scottish Scientology church – with reports suggesting one girl's role involved "giving massages".

An investigation by The Times alleges that a number of home-schooled children are being employed at the Scientology church on Edinburgh's South Bridge, known as the Hubbard Academy of Personal Independence (Hapi).

The paper claims that for the past two years, the church has been engaging children to work alongside adults in "administrative, training and recruitment roles".

The Times reports that a teenage girl has a role which involves "giving massages to adults, including male staff and members of the public".

She reportedly joined aged 14, and is now 15, and serves as a "medical liaison officer".

The massages are reportedly conducted in a locked room and unsupervised, and are part of a pseudo-medical practice known in Scientology as a "nerve assist".

Scientology has denied this.

The Times reports that Police Scotland received a report alleging forced labour of children and exploitation of minors through inappropriate physical contact with adults, but the case was allegedly closed due to a "lack of evidence".

The church has insisted the young children are volunteers, despite the fact they have signed "staff contracts" which require them to work full-time in exchange for inadequate pay.

Although they are referred to as staff, the church insists that this does not mean employment but the "staffing of training courses" completed by "volunteers".

Upon joining as "staff", the recruits are given the job title of "Hubbard Communication Officer Expeditor", which is essentially the equivalent of a human resources role.

They are tasked with clerical work, such as sending letters and shredding documents, and more practical work such as helping to run training sessions with members of the public.

They can then train for more specialised roles later.

There are around 25 "staff members" at the Edinburgh church, four of which are believed to be under the age of 16, while two other children are said to be attending the church on a daily basis but are not currently considered as staff.

The vast majority of children are registered as home-schooled, with three of the children living 450 miles away from their parents in West Sussex.

The enrolment drive is said to be in response to the church's struggle to recruit new members.

The Edinburgh church reportedly bought a modern office building near the Murrayfield rugby stadium in 2019, but it remains empty as there are not enough staff to relocate.

In response, a Scientology spokesman stated that "no person under the age of 16 is a member of staff at the Church of Scientology in Edinburgh", but did not respond when asked whether a child employment permit had been obtained.

The spokesman said that those who do sign contracts - which lawyers described as "volunteering agreements" and a "religious pledge" - do so "entirely as volunteers". However, internal documents describe these agreements as "staff contracts".

Lawyers also said that staff are not paid but are given a "discretionary allowance" which is processed through the payroll system for convenience and agreed with HMRC.

The spokesman said: "Naturally, children are involved in the life of places of worship in every religion present in Scotland. We are no different.

"Like other religions we allow some older children to help out in our church.

"Any volunteer participation is done within all the rules prescribed by law, and in the context of normal child safeguarding and protection policies and practices."

Scientology was founded in 1954 by science fiction writer L Ron Hubbard, who believed that people were "spiritual beings" whose "experiences extend well beyond a single current lifetime".

Scientologists believe that Hubbard identified the nature of "life energy", and that humans are inhabited by an eternal spirit called a "thetan" that passes from body to body through a process of reincarnation.

Therefore, a child would not be distinct from an adult in the sense that scientologists believe they are both inhabited by a "thetan" that is trillions of years old.