Scientology - 'Cult of abuse and torture', Today Tonight

“He ordered his secretary to slap me, and she slapped me so hard I fell over into the chairs,” Cook recalled during her trial.

“Mr Miscavige ordered his communicator to break my finger if I didn't answer his question,” Cook said.

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Beaten, tortured and degraded beyond belief, Cook was also made to watch the torture, beatings and degradation of others.

“There
was an ever-present threat of violence, and mental and emotional abuse,
and degradation of the worst sort,” Ray Jeffrey, Cook’s lawyer said.

Just
a few years ago Cook was selling Scientology to the world. After 29
years, she had worked her way to a position of trust around the upper
end of Scientology's chain of command - working out of their
international headquarters in Florida and California.

More stories from reporter Bryan Seymour

Finally,
in 2007, Cook had to get out and escape the cult. There was no choice
she says. She simply could not take any more, after she was imprisoned
in ‘The Hole’.

“You couldn't make it past security, the windows
were barred,” Cook described while under oath in a courtroom at San
Antonio Texas.

‘The Hole’ was two giant trailers put together,
infested with ants and sometimes without power. Up to 100 Scientologists
were crammed together, fed slop, and kept prisoner for weeks and even
months on end, at the whim of their leader Miscavige.

As a 40-something year old woman, with a respected job, Cook was imprisoned in The Hole.

She
says she was stood up and screamed at by 100 Scientologists for hours
on end, as they dumped buckets of cold water over her head. It was
punishment for her crime - wanting to leave.

This was happening
less than a year before photos taken of Miscavige and his best friend,
Tom Cruise, along with wife Katie Holmes.

In a Scientology video Cook agrees to sign a confidentiality agreement for Scientology.

She then kept quiet for five years. However two months ago, she sent
an email to her Scientology friends outlining her dismay at
Scientology’s total focus on money.

Scientology pounced, forcing
her into court for breaching her agreement to keep quiet. But it
backfired spectacularly when, under oath, Cook started revealing just
how dysfunctional Scientology and its leader had become.

Peta
O’Brien, who spent a decade inside Scientology here and in the United
States before escaping says the organisation is a cult.

O’Brien
was in the Australian labour camp we showed you two weeks ago, where
adults and children including Shane Kelsey were forced into hard labour
and deprivation, just like their American brethren.

“It was grotty. You had to make space liveable where you were sent,” O’Brien said.

“It
was my project to build the driveway, but I didn't count on having to
break my own rocks, because we had to devise our own projects to keep
ourselves busy,” O’Brien said.

She wants to see Scientology dismantled and closed.

“Why
would anyone need anything from the church of Scientology if they know
that they're not actually doing or helping people, they're not doing
what they say. In fact they're ripping them off, they're abusing their
generosity, their help,” she said.

According to Independent
Federal Senator Nick Xenophon “it really begs the question, what are the
authorities in Australia doing to protect people against this sort of
abuse.”

“The authorities need to investigate this urgently. This
is something that requires police investigation,” Senator Xenophon said.
He is horrified - not only by Debbie Cook's account of Scientology's
abuse, but also because it's happening to Australians here.

“How can these gross violations of human rights happen under our noses, in our suburbs,” he asked.

“When
you consider that the Australian Government spends a lot of money
promoting human rights around the world at the United Nations, maybe
they should spend a bit of that money right here in Australia to make
sure the human rights of Shane and others aren't being abused,” Senator
Xenophon said.

“What they do to their members is nothing short of outrageous, it's a complete denial of their human rights.”

Cook is due back in court next week to ask for a trial date.

• Ex-Clearwater Scientology officer Debbie Cook testifies - www.tampabay.com
• Debbie Cook's transformation from enforcer to whistleblower - www.villagevoice.com

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