PA MediaA former priest accused of abusing members of a church group he led has been discovered responsible of 17 counts of indecent assault in opposition to 9 girls.
Chris Mind, 68, was head of the 9 O’Clock Service (NOS), an influential evangelical motion based mostly in Sheffield within the Eighties and 90s.
Mind, of Wilmslow, in Cheshire, was convicted of the fees following a trial at Inside London Crown Court docket.
He was discovered not responsible of one other 15 expenses of indecent assault, whereas jurors are persevering with to deliberate on an additional 4 counts of indecent assault and one cost of rape.
Sporting a black go well with and black shirt, Mind confirmed no emotion because the jury foreman delivered the verdicts.
The jury are anticipated to return to courtroom on Thursday to proceed their deliberations on the remaining counts.
Throughout the trial, prosecutor Tim Clark KC stated a few of the girls had been sexually abused after being recruited to a so-called “homebase staff” charged with taking care of Mind and his household.
He advised the courtroom the group turned recognized amongst NOS members because the “Lycra lovelies” or the “Lycra nuns” after witnesses reported seeing the defendant surrounded by enticing girls in lingerie at his house
The courtroom heard that the ladies had been required to hold out family chores on the house he shared together with his spouse and daughter, the prosecution stated, in addition to placing him to mattress with sexual favours.
The 9 O’Clock BeliefProsecutors advised the jury a few of the sexual assaults had taken place throughout massages Mind admitted to receiving from members of the homebase staff.
He advised the jury they had been meant to be for “tensions” on his physique however may evolve into consensual “sensual touching”, which he stated was between associates and “no large deal”.
He denies all the fees in opposition to him.
The NOS started in Sheffield in 1986 and was initially celebrated by Church of England leaders for its nightclub-style companies, which attracted a whole lot of younger individuals.
The Church fast-tracked Mind ordination as a priest in 1991 as a result of success of the NOS, with jurors advised the group spent “giant sums of cash” to acquire robes worn by the actor Robert De Niro within the movie The Mission for Mind to put on in his ordination ceremony.
Within the early Nineteen Nineties the NOS moved to the town’s Ponds Forge leisure centre to be able to accommodate the rising congregation.
Nevertheless, it was dissolved after considerations about Mind’s behaviour had been raised in 1995.
The jury heard Mind had admitted in a BBC documentary aired the identical yr to having “improper sexual conduct with a variety of girls”.
He resigned his holy orders two days earlier than the programme was broadcast.
