Monday 28th July 2014

He is a self-styled evangelist who told his followers he was The Anointed One, chosen by God to convert the world to his beliefs.

Anyone who didn't follow his word was told they would burn in hell, that he held the key to their salvation on judgement day.

In reality, Scott Williams was a cult leader who used his own brand of religion to warp biblical scripture in the pursuit of sex, money and power.

Scott Williams left Australia 38 years ago, converting hundreds of young people throughout Europe. On the outside, life appeared happy. But now, former cult members reveal to Four Corners a lifetime of secretive abuse, misplaced worship and horrifying punishments carried out under the guise of obedience to 'The Overseer', Scott Williams. Their stories are so shocking, their brainwashing so profound, it is almost unbelievable. As one former member explained:

"It's not simple to walk out. No. I wish I could. I tried. I tried a few times. It's a curious web and it was like he's the spider and he's got you there and you can't get out of the bloody spider web."

This week, reporter Caro Meldrum-Hanna investigates the rise of Scott Williams and his incredible path around the world and back to Australia, exposing how he created a hell on earth for many followers. Controlling almost everything they did, members say they were threatened, beaten, subjected to horrifying and bizarre sexual rituals - and even their children were taken away and given to others to raise for a time.

All the while, Scott Williams amassed a fortune from his members.

Finally, the police caught up with him - but would Scott Williams be brought to justice? And how can his Assembly still be operating in Australia?

Following a four year investigation by Meldrum-Hanna, the story of Scott Williams can be told thanks to a group of courageous, key former members. Brutalised and abused, they eventually broke free from the cult. And now they break their silence publically for the first time and tell of their tormented years following the book according to Scott.

CULT OF HORRORS, reported by Caro Meldrum-Hanna and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 28th July on ABC at 8.30 pm. It is repeated on Tuesday 29th July at 11.00 am and 11.35 pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00 pm, at ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

Cult of Horrors - Monday 28 July 2014

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: How did he get away with it? Welcome to Four Corners.

There's a depressingly familiar pattern to the appeal of religious cults and the vulnerability of people who are drawn to them; a pattern that includes strict obedience to the leader who demands control of all elements of the follower's life, psychologically and physically.

Such leaders then surround themselves with a small, exclusive clique and will not tolerate criticism or dissention.

The cult we are reporting on tonight, an evangelical Pentecostal group called Christian Assemblies International, was formed in Germany nearly four decades ago by a self-appointed pastor: an Australian named Scott Williams.

He subsequently led many of his followers to Scotland and, finally, to Australia, the whole while subjecting many to brutal psychological and sexual abuse.

One of the staggering things about this story was the apparent ease with which Williams was able to set up a pseudo-charity in full view of authorities, stockpiling money and property while claiming tax benefits.

Former disciples who have broken away from the cult say Williams has successfully manipulated the justice system to stay out of jail.

Caro Meldrum-Hanna reports.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA, REPORTER: This is a man in recovery.

Gunther Frantz was abused by the leader of a secretive religious cult based in Australia, first as a boy, then as a man, for almost 30 years.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: You know, it's not nice: a male touching you or you're forced to touch him. That's hell on earth.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How many times do you think? Could you count?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: I can tell you, hundreds and hundreds of times.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Hundreds of times?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Hundreds and hundreds. Hundreds and hundreds of times. You have no idea. Sorry.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Today, swimming is form of therapy for Gunther Frantz.

It's also how he came to know his future abuser, an Australian man, and where this story begins: poolside at a military school for young men in Feldafing, Bavaria, Germany in 1978.

Gunther Frantz was 12 years old.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: I was in a club there. Um, I usually trained there every Wednesday.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: A promising swimmer, Gunther Frantz had caught the eye of the school's new pool attendant.

His name was Scott Williams: 34 years old, a fun-loving Australian, charismatic, outgoing and charming.

Williams took an immediate liking to Gunther Frantz and his older brother.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: He, er, told me that he was there to, um, spread the Gospel, to start a church. So he told me that he has, yeah, he's having a church and he's, he's a pastor of a church, yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Scott Williams was lying. He wasn't the pastor of a church. Instead, he was a self-styled guru with no religious qualifications. And he was on a mission to create his own Pentecostal revival: his own Christian assembly.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Anyone who is not within the church is, um, a heathen who is going to burn in hell. Um, and they either convert or die and, um, er, you have nothing to do with them.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Scott Williams was persistent and highly convincing. He needed people power.

Soon, Williams invited Gunther and his older brother to spend social time with him when swimming training had finished.

They began to go to the sauna together, after hours.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: We were naked, yeah. In...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So a 13 year old boy and his older brother were having a naked sauna with a...

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: A much older man at the school?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Yeah. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Over six months and in secret the naked saunas and showers, coupled with intense scripture lessons, continued at the direction of Scott Williams.

They were followed by lengthy massages.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Did he claim to be chosen by God?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Absolutely.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: What would he say?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: That God has sent him, ah, to this country to convert all of Germany and all of Europe, yeah, but mainly the Germans.

(Footage of Christian Assemblies International meeting)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: The manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Scott Williams encouraged men in his assembly to have close relationships with other men - seen here praying over one another in later years.

He called the relationship a "Bundschaft": a German world related to covenant.

The policy of the Bundschaft would later become compulsory for almost everyone. Senior men in the church had to have a male partner and their bond was above that of husband and wife.

TOM WASSMANN: To use the words of the assembly, to use Scott's words: it's like a, like a marriage without sex.

TOM BAKER: They were expected to lie almost naked, basically, in the same bed and cuddle each other, massage each other - that was a big thing - and, ah, basically have... be very, very intimate as you would probably be intimate with your girlfriend or your wife.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Gunther Frantz became Scott Williams' Bundling and one of his most senior and trusted advisers, making him a powerful figure inside Williams' evangelical Pentecostal group; treated to a rock-star welcome at the Assembly's annual general meeting in 1996.

(Footage of Gunther Frantz at CAI AGM, 1996)

GUNTHER FRANTZ (1996): My whole body started to shake. Everything... became, like, hot inside and my tongue started to move.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Forkin was another of Scott Williams' early converts in Germany. He was 17 years old and still at school.

STEVE FORKIN: Most of the people in the organisation were in their late teens, early twenties so it was a very sort of vibrant, young community.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In Europe, Williams quickly surrounded himself with more and more young men and women. He claimed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, gifted with the divine power of healing.

(Footage of CAI meeting)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: This is in Jesus' name. Praise the Lord.

CAI MEMBER: When Scott prayed for me I knew within my heart that the illness was totally gone.

SCOTT WILLIAMS (anointing Assembly members): Praise your name. Praise your name. Praise your name. Praise your name. Praise your name.

(End footage)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It was in Australia that Scott Williams first attempted to set up an assembly.

He was a high school teacher, first at Ballarat East in Victoria - pictured here in the early 1970s - then in New South Wales.

Scott Williams, pictured here with his wife Ree, went to western Sydney, where it's alleged he ran into trouble for using his role as a school teacher to indoctrinate dozens of teenage students.

He left Australia in 1976 under a cloud.

In Germany, Scott Williams soon caught the eye of the local authorities.

STEVE FORKIN: It very quickly grew to about a hundred people - I would say in the first two years - at which point Scott was, um, told by the German authorities he had to leave.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Williams was reportedly running an unregistered charity and vast sums of money - mandatory offerings from members in addition to 10 per cent of their gross income - were pouring in to a bank account controlled by Williams.

KLAUS TISCHER: Well, we didn't have anything registered at that time, so it was really, um, a money laundering exercise, really.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: I personally drove often the money every month over to the border of Austria and, um, deposited it into different accounts, um, illegally. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Under pressure in the mid 1980s, Scott Williams fled to Scotland, ordering his members to follow him.

He settled in the small county of Clackmannanshire and successfully registered his church as a charity, later known as Christian Assemblies Europe International.

Williams had learnt from past mistakes.

Klaus Tischer, another early German convert, worked in the Assembly's finance department. He says Williams devised a new way to collect money from his congregation, which was now in the hundreds, spread across Europe.

KLAUS TISCHER: He moved the money around by not even putting it through the banking system. People were set up from the length and breadth of Europe, to courier to drop-off points.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So large amounts of cash were being couriered across Europe?

KLAUS TISCHER: Yeah, yeah. Well, sometimes we were frightened for the people who were driving around at night in their cars. If they had an accident or something and people would find all these wads of money in there, they would go like, "What's going on here?"

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Using the growing fortune amassed from his members, Scott Williams went on a spending spree, building an impressive property portfolio.

His first purchase: a large house in Dollar in his own name, followed by Pitversie House in the church's name: an impressive 270,000-pound mansion.

(Talking with Sylvia Wagner) Is it a lavish place?

SYLVIA WAGNER: It's a really beautiful place. It's a big house and it's set up like the Queen's palace inside.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Were you allowed to enjoy these properties, use them at your free will?

SYLVIA WAGNER: No, um...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Who were they reserved for?

SYLVIA WAGNER: The pastor.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Pastor Scott Williams' final purchase: a hotel in Abernathy.

(Footage of Scott Williams opening Douglas House)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: We are about to open Douglas House for the glory of the Lord and many of you here have worked upon it. So what I'll do: I'll commit it into the hands of the Lord. So just pray with me.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The pressure to work hard and donate more and more to Pastor Scott Williams' church knew no bounds.

Every possible source of money was targeted: pensioners, students, widows. We've even found evidence of members being fined by Scott Williams.

Klaus Tischer's wife was pressured to hand over her inheritance when her father died.

KLAUS TISCHER: She was asked to give it to the glory of God, 'cause God's work, which happened to have been used for the purchase of the headquarters in Scotland.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Pastor Scott Williams grew all-powerful and life in the assembly began to change. In the minds of his believers, Williams held the key to their salvation and leaving wasn't an option.

TOM BAKER: He would get really, really angry and he would basically freak out and, er, obviously everybody sort of feared for their life in a way.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: It's a web. It's like he's the spider and he's got you there and you can't get out of the bloody spider web, because he, um, injects that indoctrinate poison to believe once you're out of that net you're condemned for life.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Sylvia Wagner was an outgoing, independent, 21 year old woman living in Germany when she was first introduced to Christian Assemblies International in 1993.

SYLVIA WAGNER: I was a hippy. I was engaged to a rock musician. (laughs) I was a pretty wild chook, yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Sylvia Wagner's colleague, already a member of the church, dragged her along to a two-week camp here in Cornwall, England, run by Pastor Scott Williams.

(Talking with Sylvia Wagner) You say that this is when you were brainwashed?

SYLVIA WAGNER: Yes. Yeah, I strongly believe that.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: When Sylvia Wagner tried to leave the camp, she was told she would be attacked by Satan and that people outside the church were evil, including her fiancé.

(Talking with Sylvia Wagner) What did they tell you about your boyfriend?

SYLVIA WAGNER: Oh, they told me if I got married to him, my kids will become drug addicts, I will not be blessed, um, I shouldn't be yoked together with someone who was an "unbeliever".

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Brainwashed, Sylvia Wagner left her fiancé. Alone in the Assembly, she grew increasingly desperate.

SYLVIA WAGNER: I was told I can only marry someone within the church; that I wasn't free to marry who I wanted to marry. Um, but I also didn't want to stay alone so I, um, asked somebody to, um, tell me what I should do and they said I should pray.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Sylvia Wagner prayed and prayed.

What she didn't know was that behind the scenes, church members were plotting: choosing a husband for her.

(Talking with Sylvia Wagner) What's your greatest regret?

SYLVIA WAGNER: I regret not marrying the man that I really loved. I really regret that. Like, it's really hard for me. It's really... (fights tears)

(Footage of Scott Williams performing mass wedding ceremony)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: And the vows which I am about to read are very powerful.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Arranged marriages: are they a feature or a hallmark of a cult?

GRAHAM BARKER, PSYCHOLOGIST: It's a hallmark of a cult. You get two families: now they're joined together through marriage in the system, they're more committed to the system.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: For women like Katja Forkin, life inside Christian Assemblies International was a living nightmare.

(Talking with Katja Forkin) So were women on equal footing to men?

KATJA FORKIN: No, definitely not, no.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Where did you come in the chain of command?

KATJA FORKIN: Well, I suppose we were like... We were servants, really.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Women were constantly monitored and their lives were completely controlled.

JUTTA WASSMANN: How we were dressed, how we cooked, how we behaved towards our husbands, how we brought up our kids. The cleanliness of the hou- cleanliness of the house, everything.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Church videos show women happily taking part in Assembly life, but the reality was often very different.

(Footage of Scott Williams performing mass wedding ceremony)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: And these couples out the front represent...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Women have told us they were subjected to a strict regime executed by Pastor Scott Williams.

(Footage of Scott Williams performing mass wedding ceremony)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: They all stand before us as virgins.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It started with verbal abuse in private and in public.

(Footage of Scott Williams performing mass wedding ceremony)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: ...virginal. Praise God.

JUTTA WASSMANN: He would get up: "You unbelieving bastards. I have this vision and you don't believe in this, bitch."

STEVE FORKIN: "Evil", "satanic bitches", "whores"...

SYLVIA WAGNER: On one occasion I was called a "Nazi bitch."

STEVE FORKIN: "Witches", "Nazis"...

KATJA FORKIN: Yeah. "Gutter rats".

GUNTHER FRANTZ: "Swines, filthy swines".

(Footage of Scott Williams performing mass wedding ceremony)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: Wilt thou love her, comfort her...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: According to the teachings of Pastor Scott Williams, women were Jezebels, not to be trusted. Instead, they were to be punished - physically.

SCOTT WILLIAMS: ...as you both shall live?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: They were punished. They were locked away or were even hit; to the point where people were told in the church to hit either their own wives, or others were used to hit, um, against their will.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: This is a hard question to ask you: did you raise a hand to your wife?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: I have, yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: At the direction of anyone?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Who?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Scott Williams.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In a disturbing escalation, Gunther Frantz' former wife was also beaten in front of a group of men for not being obedient enough.

Scott Williams was on the phone, instructing a senior officer to hit her as she cried and begged for mercy.

Tom Baker, a long-term member of the church from Germany, was there the night it happened.

TOM BAKER: The woman was stripped down to her underpants. She was laid over a chair. I was called in at the time. I was only about 23 years old.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And then what happened?

TOM BAKER: The other pastor who got told by Scott Williams that he had to spank her...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: With what?

TOM BAKER: A wooden stick.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Gunther Frantz wasn't present the night his wife was beaten with a stick and he didn't know she was pregnant at the time.

(Talking with Gunther Frantz) How did that make you feel?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: (inaudible) It makes you sick to your guts, doesn't it?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In 1996 Pastor Scott Williams bid goodbye to Scotland. The Lord had sent him a message to return to Australia and bring his Assembly with him.

In reality, claims of arranged marriages and bizarre sex rituals - life inside the cult - had hit the press in Scotland.

And a series of internal church emails from the mid 1990s, obtained by Four Corners, reveal the Assembly's finances were being investigated by the Scottish Charities Regulator.

The documents show the Assembly was being investigated again in 2008.

The Scottish Charities Regulator has refused to confirm what action, if any, was taken against the church.

But Pastor Scott Williams was allowed to leave Scotland and set up shop in Australia, here in the picturesque coastal town of Coffs Harbour in northern NSW.

(Talking with Gunther Frantz) What was life like in the church in Australia?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Hell on earth. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And did all the extreme teachings and the policies come too?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Absolutely. Even, even worse.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In one of the most disturbing policies used to punish women, under the direction of Scott Williams babies and young children were often separated from their mothers and given to others temporarily to raise.

It happened to Katja Forkin.

(Talking with Katja Forkin) How did you cope with that?

KATJA FORKIN: Yeah, it was a nightmare. So I suppose it made us do in that moment... The only way we knew how is it made us do everything we could to behave in the way they expected, so that we could get the children back.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And what would the children be told when they were being taken away?

KATJA FORKIN: That they were bad and that they didn't behave. And that their parents were bad.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Emily Wassmann was born into the church. Growing up in the Assembly in Australia, her childhood memories are of fear, confusion and profound loneliness.

EMILY WASSMANN: The teaching was that a child was born evil and that that had to be beaten out of them with a rod of iron.

So did you believe that you were born evil?

EMILY WASSMANN: That's what I was told.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Filmed here as a teenager, a member of the Assembly's band, Emily Wassmann says she wasn't allowed to have a life outside the church.

When she was 14, she told her parents she wanted to leave the Assembly.

EMILY WASSMANN: When I didn't change my mind and made it clear that I didn't want to go anymore, they basically cut me out of their life.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How did they do that?

EMILY WASSMANN: I mean, we lived together but they stopped speaking to me. (cries)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: A stranger in her own home. At the tender age of 15, Emily Wassmann was sent away to Canada to live with another church member: a strategy designed to break her spirit and force her back to God.

She became depressed and developed an eating disorder.

EMILY WASSMANN: In Canada I was on a number of occasions suicidal. And the only thing that would s-stop me from... from actually going through with anything was the fear that, if it didn't work, how much trouble I would be in for doing that.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Emily Wassmann managed to make it out of the church with her parents and she says her experience isn't an isolated one.

(Talking with Emily Wassmann) Do you know other young people who are born into the church and have left?

EMILY WASSMANN: Yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And have they had similar struggles?

EMILY WASSMANN: Yes, all of them. Every one.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: These memos detail how children were to be ruled in Scott Williams' Assembly. They make for disturbing reading.

ACI MEMORANDUM EXCERPT (voiceover): Do your children match up? If not, then do not be surprised that they are going to hell.

James, Annie: your children are weird and unacceptable. This sick fruit will no longer be tolerated. Break the spirit of the children or be broken by the Lord.

GRAHAM BARKER: Yeah. There's certainly delusions and paranoia...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We showed these messages to psychologist Graham Barker, who specialises in spiritual abuse and religious cults.

(Talking with Graham Barker) Have you ever seen anything like this on this scale?

GRAHAM BARKER: No. But this would be consistent with a pattern of: the more intimacy you can control, the greater the control you have.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: And how dysfunctional is this?

GRAHAM BARKER: Well, it is, it's very dysfunctional. It's border- It's bordering on pathology.

(Excerpt from CAI video)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: There are now over 2,000 trees planted. Every tree you see...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In Australia using church funds, as prophesised again by God, Pastor Scott Williams went on another buying frenzy: purchasing a vast, secluded compound for more than $1.5 million dollars, registered in the church's name: now Christian Assemblies International.

Renovated to luxurious standards: a swimming pool, barbecue area, three houses, rolling manicured lawns.

This is the headquarters of Christian Assemblies International, nestled in the isolated Cedar Valley, around half an hour outside of Coffs Harbour.

The gates are locked to the public. You can't see much from the street, but it's an impressive multi-million dollar compound of almost 300 acres.

It's here that many former members claim they spent hundreds of hours, almost every weekend, working on the property under the direction of Pastor Scott Williams.

They've told Four Corners that if their work and their behaviour wasn't up to scratch, they'd be punished severely.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: You know, we were just pure working slaves.

JOSH, FORMER CAI MEMBER: You know, there were cases of pregnant women having to work, doing manual labour late in pregnancy, you know digging trenches, this sort of stuff. It's re- just horrific, horrific stuff.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Scott Williams also used church funds to buy and sell multiple apartments in the beachfront Pacific Towers complex.

Williams purchased two grand apartments: a penthouse in the church's name and another for himself.

(Excerpt from CAI video)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: It's a miracle. And he was insisting that I buy the penthouse and he buys 1204. That's what it's all about: it's the miracle.

(Footage of Scott Williams baptising CAI member in swimming pool)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In Coffs Harbour, the recruitment drive was in full swing.

Even the former mayor, John Smith, was converted, along with a well-known local city councillor, Bob Burton.

(Excerpts from CAI video)

BOB BURTON: The heathens can run Coffs Harbour but they can't save the souls of men and women.

JOSH: We, humbly relying on the blessings of almighty God...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Josh, who only wants to be known by his first name, says he was 21 when he was introduced to the church by Councillor Bob Burton and quickly sucked in.

JOSH: If knows what my lifestyle used to be like as a heathen...

(Excerpts end)

JOSH: Initially you are treated like royalty and that lasts for about six months. You're given everything.

(Excerpt from CAI video. Congregation laughs)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: Josh, did you put your hand up? You're already influenced.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Australian-born, handsome and athletic, Josh says Scott Williams paid special attention to him, inviting him to attend secret men's nights.

(Talking with Josh) Did you attend men's nights with Scott Williams?

JOSH: Yes, I did.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (talking with Tom Wassmann): During these men's nights, we've been told that Scott Williams was very interested in people's private lives. We've been told that Scott Williams would ask people...

TOM WASSMANN: How often they had sex. That's right, yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (talking with Josh): This is an awkward question: were people also asked how often they masturbated?

JOSH: Yeah. Yep.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Were you?

JOSH: Absolutely. Yeah. They'd check in on people, see how you're travelling.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In Australia, nothing was off-limits. Josh, a new recruit, soon realised there was more to these men's nights.

Pastor Scott Williams was using his brand of religion to groom men for sex.

(Talking with Josh) Did you see that?

JOSH: I did. Experienced it partially. I was in the early stages of it before I got out.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: It was happening behind closed doors, in private.

Inside the penthouse located at the top of this apartment building in Coffs Harbour, the leader of Christian Assemblies International held regular men's nights, a mandated time for male bonding.

It's also where many men say they were sexually abused by Pastor Scott Williams.

In a bizarre religious ritual, men were chosen to lay naked with him. They've told Four Corners they were then forced to perform sex acts against their will.

Pastor Williams justified it all, using select passages from the Bible.

It began 20 years earlier with Gunther Frantz - Scott Williams' first convert, beloved Bundling, and most senior officer - when he was just a boy in Feldafing, Germany.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: I was 14 when he started to sexually, ah, touch me. He just said, "Yeah, relax." Just more or less often the words which he used: "Just surrender yourself, there's..."

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Surrender?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Surrender. That word has been used a million times towards me. Yeah.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Gunther Frantz says Scott Williams used scripture to terrify him and abuse him continuously.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: So he would either force me to touch him and make him come. Tried a, a few times, ah, orally as well. Um, often would just massage and then just lay on my back and try to force himself into me.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Did the abuse continue in Australia?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: It did, yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How old were you when it stopped?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: I was in, ah, my mid, mid-30s.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: That's more than 20 years.

(Gunther nods, visibly upset)

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Gunther Frantz says he never consented and he had no idea others were suffering in silence.

Steve Forkin has prayed to forget the night Williams first sexually abused him. He was 19 years old.

Interspersing each act with scripture, Williams told him this was the Lord's training. The ordeal lasted seven hours.

STEVE FORKIN: Eventually he made me have oral sex with him. And, um, it's at this point that my brain was just going absolutely crazy. It couldn't understand why I would do such a thing. Why would I, um, surrender to somebody in such a way?

You know, I was devastated. I was confused. Um, and I think he could see that.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Forkin says the abuse intensified and it continued for years, all against his consent.

STEVE FORKIN: He did it many more times after that.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: How many?

STEVE FORKIN: Probably 30 or 40. It's hard to - I don't know exactly the numbers, but over the years many more times.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: As the men in his Assembly grew older, Pastor Scott Williams turned his attention to the next generation of boys coming up in the church, focussing on one in particular.

(Talking with Gunther Frantz) Scott Williams had chosen your nephew as his next protégé?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: Yeah. Another one, yeah. He groomed him from the day he was born, I believe.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Ben Frantz was 18 when Pastor Scott Williams, almost 60, appointed him as his personal private secretary and his new Bundling.

He left his parents' home in Melbourne and moved to Coffs Harbour in order to be closer to Scott Williams, to begin his religious training.

(Excerpt from CAI video)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: He stays in Coffs Harbour and will be trained and then he will...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (talking with Ben Frantz): What were you really trained for and used for, do you believe?

BEN FRANTZ: I don't know. Apart from, er, Scott's own gratification, um, not a lot else to be honest.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Ben Frantz says he was 19 when the sexual abuse began; like so many others, during a naked massage session with Scott Williams.

It continued for months, even by the roadside inside a car.

BEN FRANTZ: He said, "Put me in your mouth." And I said, "No." And then, and then he said, "Oh, if you love me you will." And of course, ah, the whole time I'd been encouraged that I need to love him: it's my duty. Um, so I didn't know what to do. I couldn't, couldn't refuse. I... and there's, uh... It's disgusting. Um...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: "If you love me, you'd do it"?

BEN FRANTZ: Absolutely, yeah. That's the words he used.

GRAHAM BARKER: What is being asked and what is being probably groomed into them is total obedience. So there's this idea of, you know, I'm being compliant to an anointed leader.

Then there's the spiritual dimension as well: that in somehow this was actually helping them in their spiritual growth, because that's what they'd been told.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (talking with Klaus Tischer): Did Scott Williams then believe that he was above the law?

KLAUS TISCHER: Well, he was sanctioned by God and, ah, therefore his role was untouchable, really.

(Excerpt from CAI video)

SCOTT WILLIAMS: And my other friends...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Scott Williams may have believed he was untouchable, but the tables were about to turn.

SCOTT WILLIAMS: An exciting time to be together again.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In August 2006 Williams spoke of his excitement for the future.

Gunther Frantz was in the front row.

(Talking with Gunther Frantz) What was going through your mind?

GUNTHER FRANTZ: My main thought was, you know: when you come home there will be justice.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Scott Williams had no idea that a group of his most loyal male followers - among them his alleged victims Gunther Frantz, Steve Forkin, Ben Frantz - had been secretly planning to expose him and bravely break free from the assembly.

Concerned that more young men were at risk, they went to the local police where Inspector Scott Parker began to investigate.

He noticed a pattern.

SCOTT PARKER, INSPECTOR, NSW POLICE FORCE:

There was a consistent pattern of desensitisation, misinterpretation of the Bible. And the allegations of the complainants was that that misinterpretation, including concepts of Bundling or Bundschaft and the love between men that Mr Williams had misinterpreted from biblical verse, was the powerful overriding theme which then completely led to the desensitisation and the indoctrination of these complainants.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The police investigation ran for almost four years. During that time the Overseer, Scott Williams, wrote this stunning letter of confession to his victims:

LETTER FROM SCOTT WILLIAMS (voiceover): There is no excuse on my part for my actions of amorous affection which has or have gone beyond the borders of decency and breached partial homosexuality.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: In December 2010 Scott Williams was committed to stand trial, charged with 23 sexual offences.

But just two weeks before the trial was set to commence, in February 2012, Scott Williams successfully launched a new defence.

Using two medical reports obtained after he was committed to stand trial, Scott Williams claimed he was too sick to attend court due to a stroke in 2009.

The Crown opposed the argument but the judge accepted Scott Williams' version of events, placing a permanent stay on the proceedings.

(Talking with Scott Parker) On what medical opinion did the judge rely on? Were they independent medical reports or were they chosen by defence?

SCOTT PARKER: The medical rep- reports were provided by the treating physicians of Mr Williams.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The judge's ruling was a devastating blow.

In the eyes of his victims, Scott Williams, a master manipulator, had managed to evade justice.

GUNTHER FRANTZ: How can a judge make judgement in two and a half hours of what's happened to victims for over 25 years? Hundreds? That's for me mud in my face and to any other victim.

STEVE FORKIN: Even if he is a sick man, he's still free. He still has all the money. And on top of it, he has the ability to continue on and control people who are silently still suffering in that organisation because they haven't got the courage to stand up against it. There are still many people in there.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We went to Coffs Harbour to try and find Pastor Scott Williams, still a director of the Assembly and reportedly a recluse. He's living here in one of his apartments in the Pacific Towers.

We've been told by current members of the church that he's in a wheelchair but that he still attends church meetings and weddings and is able to communicate.

REE WILLIAMS (intercom): Hello?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Oh, hello. I'm, I'm looking for Mr Scott Williams...

We got as far as the intercom where Scott Williams' wife Ree answered.

(Talking with Ree Williams) Have I got the right apartment?

REE WILLIAMS (intercom): Yes, but what do you want him about?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: We have a number of questions that we'd like to ask Scott.

REE WILLIAMS (intercom): No, not - he's not very well. He's not well at all.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Right. Okay. Would you be able to let us up? Is your name Ree? Are you Scott's wife?

REE WILLIAMS (intercom): Yeah, how do you know all...?

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Oh, there's... she's put down the phone. Okay. Well, we have the right apartment.

No one from Christian Assemblies International would talk to Four Corners or answer our questions.

Scott Williams may have managed to avoid his day in court but he may have more to answer for.

Tens of millions of dollars flowed into the church, a registered charity in Australia. But members say the books were cooked and their donations weren't used for charitable purposes, possibly in breach of Australian laws.

(Talking with Tom Baker) And how much of that approximate $20 million was used for charitable purposes?

TOM BAKER: Maybe about five per cent, two to five per cent. The charit-...

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Where did the 95 per cent go?

TOM BAKER: The... mostly for the maintenance of the properties and into Scott Williams' ah, own pocket and his, also obviously to maintain, ah, his lifestyle.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Forkin worked in the Assembly's finance department. He says Scott Williams was secretly stashing wads of money in the loft of his Coffs Harbour compound.

STEVE FORKIN: Well, I saw steel boxes. Ah, basically the, the wooden beams in the loft were sawed asunder to make a secret hiding place where he could stash money in large quantities and jewellery and gold.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA (talking with Klaus Tischer): Did you complain to authorities in Australia about the financial irregularities?

KLAUS TISCHER: I did. After we left in 2006 I did approach the Tax Office.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Klaus Tischer says there was no response from the Tax Office, the ATO.

(Talking with Susan Pascoe) The overseer Scott Williams, he claims that...

We presented our findings to Susan Pascoe, the head of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission set up 18 months ago to regulate the conduct of registered charities.

(Talking with Susan Pascoe) So will you be looking into Christian Assemblies International? Will you investigate?

SUSAN PASCOE, COMMISSIONER, ACNC: This is clearly one that's, ah, we've been alerted to by the media, um, and in that instance, um, we would certainly be investigating.

Ultimately if there was evidence that this was not acting in a charitable way, or causing serious harm, then the charity can be dereg-, deregistered.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: So it can be shut down?

SUSAN PASCOE: Yes. We have the power to deregister.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: (Talking with Susan Pascoe) The financial documents we have...

But Susan Pascoe will need to act fast: the Abbott Government is moving to axe the Commission.

(Talking with Susan Pascoe) So we'd be back to square one. Who would, who would be overseeing charities?

SUSAN PASCOE: The, the plan the Government has is to return the function to the Tax Office.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: To the ATO?

SUSAN PASCOE: Yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: The very organisation that failed to respond to complaints from members of Christian Assemblies International?

SUSAN PASCOE: Y- yes.

CARO MELDRUM-HANNA: Steve Forkin has found peace with a new church but his faith has been tested.

The Bible says the Lord is a God of justice: blessed are those who wait for Him.

For the hundreds of people who've been irreversibly harmed by the cult of Christian Assemblies International, the time has come. Justice must be served.

STEVE FORKIN: I'd like to see the organisation shut down. I'd like to see all the wealth and assets seized from them, something of a charitable nature done.

In the end, I think he should be locked up. He shouldn't be walking the streets free.

KERRY O'BRIEN: There aren't too many instincts stronger than survival. In this case, it seems obedience comes first.

At its heights, CAI had 700 members worldwide, dwindling to about 300 currently, with 100 of them here in Australia.

In a written statement to the program, the directors of CAI said: "CAI considers it would be inappropriate to comment on any allegations the Four Corners report might raise against Mr Williams." The full statement is on our website.

Next week on Four Corners: terror in Iraq. An investigation into the Islamic extremist group ISIS and its pulling power in countries like Australia.

Until then, good night.

END

Background Information

KEY REPORTS AND DOCUMENTS

CAI Statement to 4 Corners Statement from the Christian Assembly International in relation to the Four Corners report "Cult of Horrors"

List of Commandments for CAI members Read the internal document listing the 1,050 New Testament Commandments that all 'Christians' must adhere to.

Household Management Guidelines for CAI Women A detailed list of instructions on how women should act, parent and manage the home.

Article on 'The spirit of Jezebel' This article outlines the manipulative and 'controlling spirit' of women defined as 'jezebels'. The article was distributed to members of Christian Assemblies International.

"Confession" by Scott Williams A confidential letter by Scott Williams admitting to "actions of amorous affection which has/have gone beyond the borders of decency and breached partial homosexuality."

FURTHER RESOURCES

Christian Assemblies International: Former members detail abuse handed out by CAI leader Scott Williams - ABC News | 28 Jul 2014 A four-year investigation by the ABC has uncovered shocking claims of abuse and torment in relation to NSW-based registered charity and religious group Christian Assemblies International (CAI).

Cult boss on 14 sex charges | The Coffs Coast Advocate | 17 Jul 2009 - The leader of a secretive religious group based on the Coffs Coast has appeared in court on 14 charges of aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual intercourse without consent.

Cai cult linked by the internet | The Coffs Coast Advocate | 17 Jul 2009 - Christian Assemblies International (CAI) has been described as one of the first internet cults. The members of the Pentecostal Christian group do not all live together permanently in communes, but are linked electronically with their pastors and church leaders.

Pastor charged with sex crimes on parishioners | Daily Examiner | 18 Jul 2009 - The leader of a secretive religious group based on the Upper Orara has appeared in court on 14 charges of aggravated indecent assault, sexual assault and sexual intercourse without consent. Senior Christian Assemblies International (CAI) pastor Anthony Scott Williams appeared in Coffs Harbour Local Court on Tuesday with police alleging the offences were aggravated by his use of his position as the Overseer (highest authority) of the organisation of which the victims were members.

Our Hell with the Cult | Sunday Mail | 22 Mar 1998 - A family trapped in a bizarre religious cult claim they were BRAINWASHED and forced into an arranged marriage.

Christian group linked to KKK | Cult Education Institute | 21 Jul 1999 - Controversy has erupted over the revelation that the mayor of the NSW tourist city of Coffs Harbor, and one of its councillors, head a group whose parent body is linked to white supremacist and anti-Semitic organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan... Cr Burton and the Mayor, Cr John Smith, organise weekly meetings of a Coffs Harbor chapter of the Christian Identity movement.

SUPPORT SERVICES

Cult Information and Family Support CIFS is an Australian support and information network for parents and family members of people involved in "abusive groups"

Lifeline | 13 11 14 An Australian counselling service that respects everyone's right to be heard, understood and cared for.

MensLine Australia | 1300 78 99 78 (24hrs)

National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service | 1800 737 732

BACKGROUND ON CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLES INTERNATIONAL

CAI's Listing on the ACNC Register - The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission has official information on the charity including their objects, aims, revenue and key officers.

Testimonies: Freed from Rock Music - Bands like 'Sick Of It All', 'Suicidal Tendencies', 'Pro-Pain', 'Slayer', 'Metallica', 'Congress', 'Slipknot' - they were my heroes... I can honestly say that the spirit of this world (which is of Satan) is behind this music. Rock 'n' Roll and most of the pop music is so dangerous, because it works on a subconscious level, and you cannot spiritually discern what is going on or how it is influencing you. By the grace of God, He saved me from this.

Testimonies: Saved from Sports, Fantasy Worlds & Esoteric - When I was 19 I had filled my life with mainly three things: Sports, Esoteric and Fantasy Roleplaying Games. And each one of these carries great dangers for your soul - of which I will attempt to tell you about from my experience...

RELEVANT LINKS

Australian Charities and Not-for-Profit Commission - The independent national regulator of charities.

Christian Assemblies International

Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator: OSCR

WATCH RELATED FOUR CORNERS

Scientology: The Ex-Files | 08/03/2010 - Former members of the Church give a chilling portrait of life inside the organisation.

Flash Video Presentation