Witnesses describe child lockups by Scientologists

Part of Tax-exempt Child Abuse and Neglect by Mike Gormez. Visit the message board



Founder of Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard - ordered lockup of 4½ year old little boy. Transcripts and images of TV program SECRET LIVES - L. Ron Hubbard

He put this 4½ year old little boy - Derek Greene - into the chain locker for two days and two nights. It's a closed metal container, it's wet, it's full of water and seaweed, it smells bad. But Derek was sitting up, on the chain, in this place, on his own, in the dark, for two days and two nights... people heard him crying. That is sheer, total brutality. That is child abuse.

(View SECRET LIVES - L. Ron Hubbard in realvideo)



Founder of Scientology - L. Ron Hubbard - ordered lockup of deaf-mute girl -- From the book "Messiah or Madman" by Bent Corydon

Hubbard had ordered a little girl who was a deafmute down into the chain locker sometime in 1968. Hubbard was going to cure her deaf-ness by shoving her down there! This came to my attention after she'd been there for about a week because the Master at Arms at the time, a beautiful girl, came to me and said, "John, I've got to have you come and see what's going on."



From the book "Religion Inc.: the Church of Scientology" by Stewart Lamont:

McMaster remembers once being asked by the Master at Arms to come and help her, He pulled up the wedge from the chain-locker, a dank and unhealthy part of the ship into which offenders were flung without food as a punishment. Out crawled a little girl who turned out to be a deaf-mute who had been unable to write her name and had incurred the Commodore's wrath.



Affidavit of Monica Pignotti:

I also witnessed a fourteen year old boy being locked up in the chain locker of the ship, where he was made to spend the night. The chain locker is a small dark space where the chain to the anchor to the ship is stored when the ship is not at anchor. The boy was being put in the chain locker by three teen-age L. Ron Hubbard messengers. I witnessed this happening several times to people, even though I never experienced it myself.



Interview with David Mayo (auf Deutsch)

The length of time for children would vary, but no one was there less than a day. The average was a week or two. Three weeks was about the maximum. Age didn't matter. The youngest kids were 5, 6 or 7. Old, young, men, women, big, little; it wouldn't matter because to Scientologists the being is ageless so you don't think in terms of how young or old someone is.



Little Mark and Tony

The four-year-old boy could no longer cry. He had been nearly 48 hours in the chain locker of the flagship _Apollo_ and his entire body was aching from his efforts to chip off rust. His knees and hands were raw with cuts and bruises. His voice was raspy from crying, and he was desperately afraid.



Keep in mind that the chain locker was a dangerous and scary place to be put in. One adult nearly was killed there. Was it no pleasure for adults, the experience for little children must have been a very traumatic one.



From the book "messiah or madman" by bent corydon:

The chain locker was dangerous. Located at the very bow of the ship under the water-line. It was the place where the section of the chain not in the water was stored. When the entire chain was brought up it filled most of this comparatively small, wet, dark, and some- times rat-infested locker. The only thing that was holding the chain in the locker was what is called a devil's claw, which was located well above the locker on the deck of the ship. If someone were to kick the claw, the entire chain would be pulled at high speed out of the locker by the weight of the anchor, and anyone down in the locker could very easily get caught in the outgoing chain and be yanked to his death.



Lawrence Wollersheim interviews Jesse Prince who was 2nd in command of Scientology

Just looking at it now, those children were so under-nourished, just not whole, complete children, because L. Ron Hubbard figures barley water is better than milk. . . I've seen those children, 15 to 20 of them in a filthy room, filthy carpet, food everywhere, and playing. If one of them got out of line, they'd just lock them in a room and let them scream itself to death, or scream itself to sleep. . . They make them do what's called rocks and shows, where if they do something that they weren't told to do, they have to do sit-ups, push-ups from the cradle they are punished. From the cradle the children are punished.(for more on Hubbard's barley water formula see the barley page)