They Exorcised Me Over My 'Sinful' Love For A Woman

Daily Express, July 17, 2000

By Kathy Moran

As a small child Rachel never doubted the church leaders who ruled every aspect of her life.

That was until, as a confused and emotional 16-year-old, she was denied the chance of a boyfriend outside the church by sect teaching, and began a relationship with a teenage girl.

The sect's reaction terrified her. "I was called to the house for deliverance, like an exorcism," said Rachel. "Syro told me she knew from God that I was doing this sinful and evil thing.

"I was shouted at and screamed at, shaken, prayed over and had a Bible pushed against my chest. I was upset, confused and scared."

Rachel was also ordered to phone her friend - not a church member - and lure her to Hibbert's house in Mansfield Woodhouse where she, too, was confronted by angry adults.

To break up the relationship, Spademan and Hibbert sent Rachel to the church in Connecticut, where she lived at the home of lead pastor Sam Wibberley.

"I felt like a slave," she said. "I had to get up and prepare meals, work at Wibberley's firm all day, prepare meals and clean in the evenings and then I was up all hours for prayer meetings.

"I lost 1dst. I was thousands of miles away from home and very scared. I just did what I was told."

She still believed that Spademan had been told by God about her lesbian relationship. In fact her mother had confided in Spademan, hoping for church guidance.

When Rachel returned to England, she felt under pressure to conform and entered into a relationship with another church member whom she eventually married.

Rachel said: "I was totally unprepared for marriage and for sex with a man. I didn't have the same feelings for him as for my girlfriend." She and husband Ian eventually left the church.

She said "I tried to love Ian but I think that having grown up in the church, he found it hard to show affection. The relationship fell apart."

Rachel was accepted into the police force but this meant moving away to train, so her son Patrick went to live with her parents-in-law.

"When I visited, Ian's parents wouldn't let me in the house in case I brought evil spirits," she said. "They would scream at me, in front of my son, that I was evil."

Now Rachel has rebuilt a life for herself and her son in a south coast resort, close to her mother. But its legacy also remains. Rachel feels she has been robbed of her teenage years.

"It changed the person I could have been," she said. "If I'd been allowed to explore my sexuality, I might not be the way I am. But I don't let it damage me any more. "Rachel's real name has been withheld.