London Times: Follower describes childhood of abuse

Follower describes childhood of abuse

Kristina Jones - The Family Cult

London Times/1995-11-25

By Dominic Kennedy.

Kristina Jones was awarded £5,000 by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board last year after reporting that she had been sexually and mentally abused from the age of three by followers of the sect. She was born into the Children of God and said she was molested by at least 25 men in Britain and India before leaving at the age of 12.

She cannot identify her attackers because cult members constantly change their names after the example in the Bible of Saul becoming Paul.

Miss Jones had sexual intercourse with men because she was too frightened to refuse and was told it was God's will. "I realise now that it was rape because it wasn't with my consent, but at the time I thought it was normal everyday life," she said.

"If I refused I would be accused of being `out of the spirit', and punished ... I had to prove myself as being unselfish, as Berg (the cult's founder) wanted all women to be. Punishments were designed to be humiliating and emotionally traumatic."

Miss Jones blames the sect for her present status as a 19-year-old single mother of a three-year-old son. "I didn't know how to say no to sex because it was never instilled into me as a child," she said.