SHEFFIELD (UNITED KINGDOM)
The Times/The Sunday Times [London, England]
October 2, 2026
By Jessica Sharkey
Christopher Brain, who founded Nine O’Clock Service, ‘dominated and abused his position’ to sexually assault a ‘staggering number of women’
A former Church of England priest who established a cult-like movement has been found guilty of rape and four charges of indecent assault against four women.
Chris Brain, 69, who founded the Nine O’Clock Service, known as NOS, was convicted last year of 17 charges of indecent assault against nine women followers. He was found not guilty of another 15 charges of indecent assault.
Brain has now been found guilty of one count of rape and four counts of indecent assault after a retrial.
The verdicts mean Brain, from Wilmslow, Cheshire, has been convicted of 22 sexual offences against 13 women between 1986 and 1995. He was remanded in custody for sentencing at a later date.
Judge Freya Newbery said victims would have the chance to deliver impact statements at a sentencing hearing that is likely to take two days.
The trial at Inner London crown court was told that Brain abused his position to sexually assault a “staggering number” of young women from his congregation.
Tim Clark KC, for the prosecution, said Brain ran NOS, which was aimed at young people and attracted hundreds of followers to rave-style services in Sheffield, like a cult.
Clark told the jury NOS presented itself as a “progressive force for good” but became a “closed and controlled group which the defendant dominated”. He said: “This was a cult in which the young women were reduced to such an emotional reliance on the defendant’s approval that they no longer had the capacity to freely consent to the sexual behaviour involved.”
The court was told that Brain controlled the women’s lives, ostracised them from friends and family, took control of their finances and convinced them to compete for his affections. Some of the women were assigned to a “homebase team”, known as the Lycra Lovelies, which cared for Brain, his wife and their young daughter.
Homebase members were put on a rota to “help the defendant get to bed” with sexual favours and massages, the court heard.
Brain, who stepped down as a priest when allegations about his conduct were raised in 1995, denied the offences and continues to deny his guilt in relation to the crimes for which he was found guilty last year.
Brain told the court he had consensual sexual contact with two of his victims, including the rape victim, and no sexual contact with the other two women.
The court was told how Brain had lured one of the women to his home, plied her with whisky, then raped her in an attic bedroom.
A second woman, who was part of the “homebase” team, said she was chided if her clothing was not provocative enough. She recalled frequent incidents of standing naked in front of a fully clothed Brain and described him as a “Jekyll and Hyde character”.
Clark said it was telling that Brain wanted to be ordained in the robes worn by Robert De Niro in the film The Mission. He told the jury it was the act of a “raging narcissist” who wasted money “so everybody would know he’s wearing a cassock from a Hollywood movie”.
Clark said: “His evidence is all lies and avoidance. He’s not a reliable narrator of events. He’s a lifelong conman trying to con one last rube, and that’s you, members of the jury. You can be sure the brave women who had the courage to testify about what they went through told the truth. The man can’t even accept he is sexually incontinent.”
In 1980 Brain moved to Sheffield to join his wife, Lynne, also known as Winnie, who was a music student at the university. The couple were the lead figures in a Christian rock band, Present Tense, and lived with other band members in a shared house.
The Brains and their friends worshipped together “in community” and in 1986 the vicar of St Thomas’s church gave them permission to conduct a new style of worship at 9pm on Sundays.
NOS was hailed as a success story by Church of England leaders. It combined traditional prayer with music, videos and dancing and soon drew in hundreds.
Lord Carey of Clifton, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, talked of wanting “a NOS in every town and city” and Anita Roddick, the late Body Shop founder, gave a large donation to finance the group’s planned expansion to California. Bishops fast-tracked Brain’s ordination as a deacon in 1991, then as a priest in 1992.
In 1995 a number of women accused Brain of sexual exploitation, making newspaper headlines, but it was not until 2021 that women came forward to police, leading to a criminal investigation.
Last year a former member of the group claimed Church of England officials warned women who raised the alarm not to talk to the police nor the press.
The diocese of Sheffield announced a safeguarding practice review relating to the NOS in September last year. It later said it would commence once the retrial had concluded.
The Right Rev Dr Pete Wilcox, the Bishop of Sheffield, said: “My first thoughts today are with the women whose courage brought this retrial to a conclusion. They have now given evidence, in full, not once but twice. It is unfortunate that that was necessary, and I am acutely conscious of the cost it has had for them. I am also conscious of the distress experienced by many others who have not been part of the criminal proceedings.
“Last year I offered an unreserved apology for the abuse of power and leadership that took place within the Nine O’Clock Service. Today’s verdict adds to that same picture and my apology stands in full.
“Last year I also commissioned an independent safeguarding practice review into how the church responded at the time. We took the decision to delay that review until these outstanding charges had been resolved, so as not to cut across the retrial. With today’s verdict, that review will now begin and I remain committed to seeing it through and to acting on its findings.”
Detective Superintendent Eleanor Welsh, senior investigating officer at South Yorkshire police, said: “Brain is a devious and arrogant sexual predator who caused lasting harm to these women.” She said she hoped the verdict “brings some comfort, to know they have had a voice, they have been heard and the jury has accepted that Brain is a serial sex offender”.
Brain after his arrest
Julie Moss, from the Crown Prosecution Service Yorkshire and Humberside, said Brain embarked on a “disturbing campaign of manipulation and abuse”. She said: “Brain framed the Nine O’Clock Service as a progressive force for good, engaged with the local community and [became] involved in environmental concerns. He presented himself as a spiritual leader and a ‘man of God’, who existed to guide and mentor his followers.
“However, behind the mask was a man who was repeatedly abusing several young members of his service. Victims were isolated from their loved ones, made financially and emotionally dependent on the group and made to believe that resistance to Brain’s sexual advances reflected their own personal or spiritual failings.
“This was not consent. It was forced submission, caused by the culture of fear and dependency Brain had deliberately created.”
Moss said the courage of his victims was “central to securing these convictions”.