I accept the generality of the evidence presented to me that there was widespread activity of that kind to an extent significantly greater than would take place between children and between teenagers outside The Family. I confine myself to some particular findings of fact which appear to be more material than others.
1. MB: I have already referred to her being required to stroke and fondle her friend A1 as they danced for the sexual pleasure of the men at MWM. For the purposes of the behaviour I am dealing with, I must refer to her evidence of the time when she was living in her grandfather's house. She was there with Maria's children Davidito some 3 years younger and Techi about 6 years younger. She joined them when she was aged about 11. Davidito was about 8. From an early stage she had "sexual foreplay with him and took it as perfectly natural." "Davidito was quite experienced in sexual matters". MB lived in the Berg compound for nearly 4 years. The end of her time there included some of the most painful periods in her life as I shall have to recount. Because she was being beaten, there were many things that she was "blocking out", but she told me, and I accept, that she specifically remembers that Sara "came and told me that grandfather wanted me to become pregnant by Davidito", "who was less than 12 by then". That was her first experience of full sexual intercourse. Sara wrote in the "Last State " (Mar 1987) that "MB was having regular dates with Dito and we suggested she put off these interests in other boys and sex except Dito, until she was much stronger in the Lord". I find that at least Berg, Maria and Sara connived at that activity and I have little doubt that it was common knowledge in the compound and therefore within the knowledge of the other leaders who acquiesced in its occurrence.
When MB went to Macau she spoke of there being considerable sexual activity between the teenagers before the Make It Work letter was published. The contradiction between this letter and the earlier letters was obvious to the teenagers, many of whom were confused and some of whom (though not many) continued clandestinely to behave as they had.
2. AB spoke of the teenagers being given "an hour in the basement for the enjoyment of their sexual pleasures".
3. JG is the son of Apollos, also known as Pathway, the editor of the many letters and co-author with Berg of "Heaven's Girl". He began a full sexual life at an early age and was having his first full sexual intercourse at the age of 10. He continued it with his contemporaries and in Macau was frustrated when this was discouraged. I accepted his evidence despite finding him to be somewhat coarse and disrespectful and seemingly contemptuous of authority. I was not surprised that such a personality caused him to be in trouble within The Family. I regret that I could not accept the evidence of his elder brother EG, who wished to play down the significance of sexual activity between the teenagers themselves.
4. KJ. She was a very important witness. Her father is CJ, known in the family as Simon Peter. He has a position of high leadership. Her mother is VJ who is now vociferous in her condemnation of The Family and is much involved in the media campaign whose purpose is to expose them and bring them down. KJ herself has not fought shy of publicity. It is, therefore important that I scrutinize her evidence closely before accepting it to be true. It was given over nearly 4 days. As I look back at my notes, especially of my contemporaneous comments, I see how time and time again I was impressed with the wealth of detail which came pouring out in a way which did not suggest either invention or the recounting of the experiences of others. There were too many occasions when she was given the opportunity to embellish facts to the disadvantage of The Family and refrained from doing so. She gave credit where credit was due, for example, to SF. At one point she broke down and denounced Berg in tones of such obvious deep personal anguish that I caused the tape recording of that part of her evidence to be made available and I played it back at one point during the hearing. It was not suggested that her distress was a theatrical display skilfully presented to deceive me. Her evidence stood in some contrast to that of another of the Plaintiff's witnesses, RD, who from time to time did descend into unconvincing histrionics. KJ spoke of the early sexual exploration in which she engaged as a very young child. She said that from the youngest age she knew that she and members of The Family were special but she went on to describe how, at the age of 4 or 5, she visited her grandparents who are not members of The Family. She recalled her grandmother crying because she had seen KJ and her brother under the table engaged in this kind of childish exploration and fumbling. It was then that KJ realised that they were different because they, members of The Family, had the gift of God to do all these things because they had broken the bondage of the world and were free. She had her first full sexual intercourse at the age of about 7 with a boy of about 12 in a house in India which had beds and she could remember to mosquito nets. She had experience of simulated sex before then. She had no sense of doing it furtively although she did not like to be teased as occasionally she was along the lines of, "Oh you're going to be a good FFer" or "Oh, wow, how cute, how unselfish". She subsequently had full sexual intercourse with a number of boys and engaged in "foreplay or masturbation" with many others. She said she moved around a lot and everywhere she went she experienced it and could not remember any particular home where more or less took place. She spoke of sharing with SC and FC. This was kissing, cuddling, masturbating and simulating sex in their bunk beds. She was about 7 or 8 at the time. Later, just before her departure from India in March 1988, a few months short of her 12th birthday, she said that she and SC, of whom she appeared to have been fond, renewed their sexual contact, engaged in masturbation, but on this occasion had full sexual intercourse. She spoke of his ejaculating almost immediately and of semen running down her legs. SC spoke of "climbing on top of her and jumping up and down and having an orgasm," which he said was his first but he denied that it was "penetrative sex". It seems to me more likely than not that he did penetrate, however briefly. KJ says that after her return to this country she discovered that she was pregnant and miscarried. I accept that she did but I am far from certain that SC was responsible for that pregnancy, having regard to her admitted sexual intercourse with another boy in the weeks before her leaving India.
5. SC did admit that there were times when he had cuddled her, he admitted that he used to jump into KJ's bed when they were in tents at a teen camp and he admitted cuddling but was unconvincing when he said that it was only the others who could have been "exploring each other sexually". He very modestly admitted that the girls were keen on him and he became interested in girls when he was about 12 which would have preceded KJ's departure from India. He admitted that he had sexual intercourse with SW when both were aged 13 and he described this as his first "full" sexual relationship. Given the fleeting nature of his encounter with KJ, that is probably so. Whilst he denied living in a highly sexualized atmosphere, he had heard of the rumours about MP having sex with other boys, in particular K1 and he was aware of older teenagers who had "got into trouble over sexual matters". By the time he was 13 the rules had changed and it could then be said that sex was discouraged, but not enough to prevent his experience with SW. I was impressed by much of what he told me until right at the end of his evidence he was cross examined about his failing to tell the truth to the Australian barrister making his film in Denmark. He did not tell the truth, he said, because of his embarrassment and his not wanting to explain why he had been put on silence and why he was a "rotten apple". To some extent he is embarrassed by his young sexual experiences and I believe he was seeking to diminish them.
6. His brother FC was of a very different personality. He has none of his young brother's charm. He was a most unconvincing witness and I did not feel that I could rely upon him. SF their mother was a nice woman as almost all who knew her agreed. I do not find it at all unlikely that, as MP told me, she, SF, allowed MP and K1 to have "cuddle time", made a room available and even placed the candle in the room for its romantic effect. I am equally satisfied that although SF condoned heavy petting, she discouraged sexual intercourse but MP and K1 disobeyed her. She liked KJ as KJ liked her. I am sure she was distressed for FC who was so much less popular than SC. She was a little insulated from the full effect of the sexual letters and just as her sons were surprised by her topless dancing, so she was surprised by the sexual activity of the young which occurred under her roof. Because she is such a nice lady, she wanted to believe the best in everyone and to some extent she had shut her eyes to what had been going on about her.
7. The P Family
Because they have been so heavily involved in the media campaign against The Family, I initially viewed their evidence with some scepticism. MP was particularly aggressive in the way she gave evidence. Her language was deliberately crude and she seemed as determined to paint as a perverted picture as SF was to view life through rose coloured spectacles. The truth lies somewhere in between these two extremes. In fairness to SF, I should not overlook VP's evidence that SF discouraged her from a close relationship with a boy aged 13 or 14. In order to put in perspective a false picture of rampant sexual activity enjoyed all the time by all the teenagers, I must bear in mind that VP herself remained aloof from this activity though she was, of course, a good bit younger than some of the others. She also made the point that practices varied from place to place. Mexico, where they went after India, was "quite loose and people did what they wanted." When she went to Wantage, about which more later, she was rebuked for holding hands which she found strange because there was so much sex around when she was young.
8. A striking confirmation of the fact that The Family's attitude to child sexuality was very different from "the system's" came from the evidence of MA who told me very frankly, and therefore to his credit, that he and his wife were approached by a couple who had been in Greece (where even The Family tacitly acknowledged excesses occurred) and who suggested that their son aged 10 should share with their daughter of the same age, an invitation which the MA's rejected, apparently to the other couple's surprise.
9. DR, as fervent a supporter of The Family as one could find, slipped into her evidence, self righteously, I thought, that there was an occasion aged 11 when a boy of the same age wanted to have sexual intercourse with her and was disconcerted by her refusal. What was unconsciously revealing of this incident was her adding that he rebuked her for being selfish, just as Berg denounced all refusals to give sexual pleasure, the message of "The Girl who Wouldn't".