Darling, I want to be completely honest with you. Dad did have somebody watching Chapman Farm because he was so worried about you, but I promise that’s all finished. Dad’s cancelled the arrangement. Nobody’s spying on you and we don’t want to control you, Will. We only want to see you and hear from your own lips that you’re happy and that you’re acting of your own free will.
We love you, and I promise we only want the best for you.
Mum xxx
12 May 2012
Dear Colin and Sally,
I will meet you at the Central Temple in Rupert Court, London, on 23rd May at midday. Do not bring anyone with you, especially any ex-member of the church, because they won’t be admitted.
The Drowned Prophet Will Bless All Who Worship Her.
Will
24 May 2012
Dear Colin and Sally,
I agreed to meet you yesterday to prove I’m completely happy and fully in control of my own choices. Both of you demonstrated high levels of egomotivity and were disrespectful to me and abusive towards people I esteem and love.
If you contact the police or start having me watched again I will bring charges against you in court. The Church has arranged for me to be assessed by a doctor who will testify that I have full capacity and that you are the ones trying to exert undue influence on me. I have also consulted the UHC’s lawyers. My trust fund is my own and as Grandpa left me that money, not you, you have no right to prevent me from using my inheritance for good.
The Drowned Prophet Will Bless All Who Worship Her.
Will
16 March 2013
Darling Will,
I know I say it in every letter, but please, please contact us. We understand and respect the fact that you want to remain with the UHC. All we want is to know that you’re happy and well. Most of all, we’d like to see you in person. It’s been over a year, Will. We miss you so much.
I sent your birthday present to Chapman Farm. I hope you got it all right.
Please, Will, get in touch. Nobody’s going to try and persuade you to leave the UHC. All we want is your happiness. Dad deeply regrets some of the things he said when we last met. We aren’t angry, Will, we just miss you desperately.
Dad’s going to add his own note, but I just want to say that I love you with my whole heart and simply want to know that you’re OK.
Mum xxxxxx
Will,
I sincerely apologise for what I said about the church last year. I hope you can forgive me, and that you’ll get in touch. Mum misses you very much, as do I.
With love,
Dad x
Extracts from a letter from legal firm Coolidge and Fairfax to Mr Kevin Pirbright, former member of the Universal Humanitarian Church
18 March 2013
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL CORRESPONDENCE
NOT FOR PUBLICATION, BROADCAST OR DISSEMINATION
Dear Sir…
This letter is written on the understanding that you are responsible for the blog ‘Exposing the Universal Cult’, which you write under the name ‘Ex-UHC Member’…
Blog Post of April 2012: ‘The Aylmerton Connection’
On 2 April 2012 you published a blog post titled ‘The Aylmerton Connection’. The post contains several false and highly defamatory claims about the UHC. The opening paragraphs read:
Unbeknownst to the vast majority of its booming membership, who’ve been drawn to the church by its message of equality, diversity and charitable service, the Universal Humanitarian Church was born out of the Aylmerton Community, a notorious Norfolk-based commune, which in 1986 was revealed as a front for the paedophiliac activities of the Crowther family.
Most members of the Aylmerton Community were arrested along with the Crowther family, but those who were lucky enough to escape prosecution remained on the community’s land, which they re-christened ‘Chapman Farm’. This diehard group would become the founding members of the UHC.
Any reasonable reader would understand by this that the UHC is, in effect, a continuation of the Aylmerton Community under another name, and that the UHC’s activities resemble those of the Aylmerton Community, specifically with relation to paedophiliac activity. Both assertions are false and highly defamatory of our clients.
Furthermore, the phrases ‘lucky enough to escape prosecution’ and ‘diehard group’ would suggest to the reasonable reader that those who remained on the community’s land had committed unlawful acts similar to those for which the Crowther family and others were jailed. There is no truth whatsoever in this assertion, which is false and highly defamatory of the UHC’s members and Council of Principals.
The True Position
In fact, only one member of the UHC was ever part of the Aylmerton Community: Mrs Mazu Wace, the wife of the UHC’s founder and leader, Jonathan Wace.
Mazu Wace was fifteen years old when the Aylmerton Community was disbanded and she gave evidence against the Crowther brothers at their trial. This is a matter of public record and easily discoverable through court documents and press reports of the case.
Mrs Wace has talked openly of her traumatic experiences at the Aylmerton Community, including at church groups you personally attended. Far from being ‘lucky enough to escape prosecution’, Mrs Wace was herself a victim of the Crowthers. The imputation that she was complicit in, or otherwise approved of, the Crowthers’ vile, unlawful behaviour is highly defamatory and has caused Mrs Wace significant hurt and distress. It has also caused, and is likely to continue to cause, serious reputational harm to Mrs Wace, and to the UHC. This exposes you to significant liability.
Blog Post of 28 January 2013: ‘The Great Charity Con’
On 28 January 2013, you published a post titled ‘The Great Charity Con’, in which you state:
In fact, the sole purpose of the UHC is generating money, and it is remarkably good at this. While better-known members are allowed merely to proselytise in press interviews, the rank and file are expected to be out on the streets with their collecting tins every day, and to remain outside, no matter the weather or their own state of health, for as long as it takes for them to make their ‘offering’. This is the minimum one hundred pounds per day each foot soldier must return with, unless he or she wishes to face the wrath of the church’s volatile enforcer Taio Wace, who is the elder of Jonathan and Mazu Wace’s two sons.
The description of Mr Taio Wace as a ‘volatile enforcer’ will be understood by the reasonable reader to mean that Mr Taio Wace is aggressive, unpredictable and a bully. This categorisation is highly defamatory of Mr Taio Wace and likely to cause significant reputational harm to him, as a Principal of the Church, and to the UHC itself.
You further write:
Where does all the money go? Good question. Visitors to the church’s Chapman Farm ‘retreat’ will note that while ordinary members are ‘enjoying’ the experience of pre-mechanised farming, sleeping in unheated barns and swapping their collecting tins for hoes and horse-drawn ploughs, the accommodation offered to Principals and celebrity members is rather more comfortable.
The main farmhouse has been enlarged and renovated to a distinctly 21st-century standard, complete with swimming pool, jacuzzi, gym, sauna and private cinema. Most Principals drive brand new, top-of-the-range cars and the head of the church, Jonathan Wace (known to members as ‘Papa J’), is known to own property in Antigua. Visitors to the Central Temple in Rupert Court can also see the increasingly opulent fixtures and fittings, not to mention the gold-embroidered robes worn by Principals. ‘Simplicity, Humility and Charity’? Try ‘Venality, Duplicity and Vanity’.