Ex-priest 'cult leader' who wore Robert De Niro robes found guilty of 17 indecent assaults

A former priest accused of abusing members of a "cult-like" church group he ran has been convicted of 17 counts of indecent assault against nine women.

Chris Brain, 68, (above and all below) led the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), an evangelical movement based in Sheffield in the 1980s and 90s, using robes worn by actor Robert De Niro.

Brain, of Wilmslow, in Cheshire, was found guilty of the charges following a trial at Inner London Crown Court on August 20 2025.

He was found not guilty of another 15 charges of indecent assault, while, on August 21, jurors were unable to reach a verdict today on four other counts of indecent assault and one count of rape and were discharged.

There will be a hearing on 4 September to determine next steps including date of sentencing, whether there will be a retrial.

The jury are expected to return to court on Thursday to continue their deliberations on the remaining counts.

During the trial, prosecutor Tim Clark KC said some of the women had been sexually abused after being recruited to a so-called "homebase team" charged with looking after Brain and his family.

He told the court the group became known among NOS members as the "Lycra lovelies" or the "Lycra nuns" after witnesses reported seeing the defendant surrounded by attractive women in lingerie at his home.

The court heard that the women were required to carry out household chores at the home he shared with his wife and daughter, the prosecution said, as well as putting him to bed with sexual favours.

Prosecutors told the jury some of the sexual assaults had taken place during massages Brain admitted to receiving from members of the homebase team.

He told the jury they were intended to be for "tensions" on his body but could evolve into consensual "sensual touching", which he said was between friends and "no big deal".

He denies all the charges against him.

The NOS was launched in Sheffield in 1986 and was initially celebrated by Church of England leaders for its nightclub-style services, which attracted hundreds of young people.

The Church fast-tracked Brain's ordination as a priest in 1991 due to the success of the NOS, with jurors told the group spent "large sums of money" to obtain robes worn by the actor Robert De Niro in the film The Mission for Brain to wear in his ordination ceremony.

In the early 1990s the NOS moved to the city's Ponds Forge leisure centre in order to accommodate the growing congregation.

But prosecutors told the jury NOS "became a cult" in which Brain abused his position to sexually assault "a staggering number" of women from his congregation.

The group was dissolved in 1995 when concerns about Brain's behaviour were first raised.

The jury heard Brain later admitted in a BBC documentary, aired the same year, to having "improper sexual conduct with a number of women".

He resigned his holy orders two days before the programme was broadcast.

The trial continues.