Chris Brain, a former Church of England priest, has denied raping or indecently assaulting women connected to the Nine O’Clock Service, which he led in Sheffield from 1986 to 1995. He accepts having consensual sexual contact with some congregation members, but rejects prosecutors’ claims that he deliberately created a cult that made young women emotionally dependent on him and vulnerable to abuse.

The court heard that the service grew from a progressive, music-led church gathering into a congregation of hundreds before collapsing amid allegations about Brain’s conduct. He said women sometimes massaged him at home to help with back tension, and that this only very rarely became sexual; he is being retried after a previous jury could not reach verdicts on one rape charge and four indecent-assault charges, while continuing to deny offences for which he was convicted last year.