Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
SUNDAY SUN 20/08/95 - [headline unknown] Article: A NORTH girl who signed a billion-year contract with a controversial religious cult has married in a ceremony she kept secret from her parents. Kathleen Wilson, 24, invited her mum and dad to a Church of Scientology blessing of her marriage but NOT to the register office where she wed a fellow cult member Peter Howell, 30, three days earlier. Despite the invitation, her heartbroken mum Margaret, 63, boycotted the ceremony and the blessing at the cult's headquarters. A court heard earlier this year how she suggested that her daughter should be snatched from the cult, whose membership includes stars like Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Priscilla Presley. The boyfriend of Kathleen's best friend was later cleared of trying to kidnap her from the sect. Kathleen's father Ray did make the 640-mile round trip to see his daughter at the Scientologist RQ in West Sussex. But Margaret, 63, refused to travel from her home in Guisborough, Cleveland, to the service. PROTECT She said: "Wild horses wouldn't drag me there. Kathleen might be my only daughter but I wasn't going to go among that lot. "She begged me to go but I refused point blank. I don't agree with what they do or believe in and I can't believe my Kathleen has married one of them. "I've always tried to bring her up properly and protect her but I can't do anything against these people. She seems to be spellbound by them all." Ray and Margaret are separated, so he travelled from Brotton, Cleveland, to the Scientology castle, in East Grinstead, with a friend. He said: "I didn't even know Kathleen had a boyfriend but the lad didn't seem a bad person. "On the day I was happy to see my daughter - but I'm not proud of her like I should be." Ray said Kathleen wrote to tell him she was marrying Peter, and then visited him two weeks before her big day. "She didn't mention the register office wedding to me, I was just told about the blessing. The only reason I went down is because she's my daughter." Speaking from the Scientology HQ, Kathleen said she was upset that her mother didn't arrive. "I invited her but she didn't turn up. I got engaged in May, after the court case. I waited until that was all over first. "I was only engaged for a month and got married on June 11. I've known Peter for around a year." After her Scientology blessing, Kathleen went on a five-day honeymoon in Paris. She added: "I had a lovely time and I am very happy." RESCUE The Sunday Sun reported how Stephen Cooper, 27, was acquitted of trying to kidnap Kathleen from the cult's HQ in November 1992. Kathleen, his old flatmate, is now launching a civil claim for compensation over the bungled rescue attempt. She still works six days a week at the Scientology HQ, where she has signed a billion-year contract, for a wage of about £33.
Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive