israeli police clash with palestinians at the al aqsa mosque in another flare up of tensions. life coaching or a cult? the bbc investigates a self improvement business, accused of taking over the lives, of its clients. how do you feel, paul, about the fact that so many people think you re running a cult. we re not running a cult. they don t know what a cult is. and the miraculous escape after hitting a gas pipe. a new digital map of our underground utilities, could prevent future tregedies. coming up on the bbc news channel. frank lampard emerges as a surprise contender for the chelsea job until the end of the season. their former captain was sacked by the club two years ago. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. after an extraordinary day in american history, donald trump has told his supporters, he s the victim of election interference. he s the first former president to face criminal charges, 3a counts in all, of falsifying business records. he appeared in cou
so many people think you re running a cult? we re not running a cult because they don t know what a cult is. they don t know, if you ask them what s the difference with a cult and a community that supports people, they wouldn t be able to tell you. why do you think so many people say it? because they re slurring us. they re smearing us. that s exactly what they do. are you going to carry on? yes, we are carrying on. thank you. we ve had enough. no comment. catrin nye, bbc news. and you can see and listen to catrin nye s full investigation, by seraching for a very british cult, on bbc iplayer, or bbc sounds. 21 people have been convicted for their parts in the largest ever child sex abuse case investigated by west midlands police. 13 have already been jailed. live now to wolverhampton crown court and our correspondent there, phil mackie. what happened today? this is the first time we can report this case
israeli police clash with palestinians at the al aqsa mosque in another flare up of tensions. life coaching or a cult? the bbc investigates a self improvement business, accused of taking over the lives, of its clients. how do you feel, paul, about the fact that so many people think you re running a cult. we re not running a cult. they don t know what a cult is. and the miraculous escape after hitting a gas pipe. a new digital map of our underground utilities, could prevent future tregedies. coming up on the bbc news channel. frank lampard emerges as a surprise contender for the chelsea job until the end of the season. their former captain was sacked by the club two years ago.
firstly, cults are started and led by a charismatic and authoritarian leader, but they re also bullies. the structure is steeply hierarchical, but it s heavily isolating. then you have this process of what i call brainwashing, or we could also call coercive control. if you do this to people, you can then exploit them. martin s daughter mel is still part of lighthouse. she no longer talks to herfamily. one feels so powerless. you feel what can i do? what s it like having a child in lighthouse? it s as if my daughter has died. because she s not my daughter, that i know, is not there anymore. i m sorry. one week ago, lighthouse international group was shut down as a business by a court over a lack of financial transparency. we put our allegations to their leader. how do you feel about the fact that
life coaching business accused of being a cult. lighthouse international claimed it offered self development and life coaching, but several people who signed up, say they were later encouraged to hand over tens of thousands of pounds, and separate from their familes, as the organisation took over their lives. here s catrin nye. it s been 18 months since jeffrey leejones left lighthouse international group, a life coaching company accused of being a cult. the 34 year old sailor from portsmouth initially got involved with the organisation for business mentoring, but soon he was on the phone to his mentor at all hours of the day. i thoroughly enjoy the conversations you and i have. at first i was motivated, iwas inspired, and i started working hard. these calls then became more frequent, longer, more intense, more about deeper parts of your life. in time, i began to share traumatic things, things i found deeply painful.