It looks like Tom Cruise is gonna be in big trouble this time. Get it? Tom Cruise. Cruise ship.
Anyway, with that out of my system, the news story is about Valeska Paris, a girl born into a Scientology family.
When she was 17, one year after joining the Church’s elite Sea Organisation, her mother quit the group because the husband committed suicide and blamed the Church of Scientology for his action. To prevent the mother from pulling Paris out of the group with her, Scientologist leader David Miscavige ordered the girl to be taken on the Church’s cruise ship, “The Freewinds,” for two weeks.
But instead of a two weeks cruise, the girl ended up living there against her will for 12 years. For the first six years she was unable to leave the ship without an official Scientology escort, and she was sometimes forced into hard labor in the ship’s engine room. Escaping the ship was impossible, as “they take your passport when you go on the ship” and the vessel’s cruising itinerary consists mostly of small islands in the Caribbeans.
The Church of Scientology is denying Paris’ claims, but a former senior executive on the Freewinds, Ramana Dienes-Browning, says she too was once held against her will on the ship and suffered abuse.
Can someone remind me why Scientology still exists and its leaders haven’t been jailed yet?
via abc.net.au
