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My victory joy after six year battle with cult
The Express, Wednesday 9 June 1999
by Richard Palmer
[Above the text are pictures of 1) the previous days' Express headline "Stars' cult pays out £155,000 over hate campaign", 2) Bonnie and Richard at home with the "What is Scientology" book, 3) John Travolta and 4) Tom Cruise.]
A woman involved in a court battle with the Church of Scientology hugged her supporters yesterday and savoured victory.
Bonnie Woods had just won £55,000 libel damages and the promise of a further £100,000 in legal costs from the controversial religious cult. Standing outside the High Court in London, she told how Scientologists ruined her life with a campaign of intimidation.
"It has been horrific. Sometimes you have to learn to live with a level of harassment that most people would find intolerable," said the 49-year-old born again Christian, whose husband Richard was at her side.
"But we have a deep faith and sometimes you can learn from suffering. Often during the last six years I have wondered why am I doing this? Sometimes when it was very hard, if not impossible to carry on, I got so discouraged I didn't think I could go to one more hearing.
"What kept me going was the need to speak the truth about Scientology as I understand it to be." In court yesterday, her barrister, Michael Tugendhat QC, described how Mrs Woods joined the group in the 1970s but left it in 1982 and, after converting to Christianity in 1991, began to offer advice to those whose relatives and friends were caught up in Scientology.
When she publicly criticised the church and spoke to the media about her experiences as a member of the organisation, its response was to lash out at her.
The church distributed leaflets to her neighbours in East Grinstead, Sussex, describing her as a hate campaigner who tried to force people away from their chosen faith.
Scientology investigators interviewed her family and her friends. The church uncovered the fact that Mr Woods owed money to an elderly woman, persuaded her to assign the debt to them and made Mrs Woods bankrupt.
Mrs Woods attended 25 court hearing. Yesterday the church, which has a worldwide following and includes stars like John Travolta and Tom Cruise among its members, finally agreed to pay her libel damages and costs after accepting it went beyond the pale.
In a terse apology, its barrister, Patrick Moloney, QC, said: "The defendants regret that when responding to Mrs Woods's criticism of the Church of Scientology they went too far in attributing to her conduct and motives which they now accept were not correct. Through me they apologise to Mrs Woods and undertake not to make any such allegations again."
With the weight of the case finally off her shoulders, Mrs Woods said last night: "I am delighted my reputation has been vindicated.
"I now hope that I can continue my life and to live it in peace. It has been a long road, but I had to fight on."
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