Victims of a Christian youth festival founder have spoken out for the first time claiming he ran “a cult” in which young men were encouraged to receive full-body massages on his bed and engage in wrestling matches.

An exclusive investigation by Gabriella Swerling, The Telegraph's social and religious affairs editor.

The Rev Canon Mike Pilavachi, a 65-year-old charismatic evangelist, founded the Soul Survivor Watford church and its annual summer festivals, which ran from 1993 to 2019, and had an average attendance of 30,000 teenagers from around the world each summer.

At the beginning of April 2023, it emerged that he was stepping back from Church of England ministry amid an ongoing internal investigation and following allegations revealed by The Telegraph detailing how he formed inappropriate intimate relationships with young people.

Now, speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, his alleged victims and former Soul Survivor staff members have come forward to speak out for the first time about how he has “left a trail of broken, young male adults scattered all around the world”.

Furthermore, they claim that Rev Canon Pilavachi’s “toxic behaviour” and “horrible cruelty and obsession” with certain young men was an “open secret” within the organisation, but that nothing was done.

Continue reading the full article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023...

And a follow up article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023...

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