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Ex-cult member details ordeal
Women in an Attleboro-based cult were ”baby machines” who had to be ”submissive” to their husbands and considered being married to the leader’s son like being Jesus’ wife, an ex-member testified yesterday.
”We were baby machines,” said Nicole Kidson, a Maine woman who was cast out of The Body religious sect in 1998 because she refused to give up her eyeglasses. ”You felt like a cow – nursing and pregnant all the time.”
Testifying in Taunton Superior Court in the second-degree murder trial of Karen Robidoux, Kidson lashed out at the group’s ”mind control,” saying members were unflinchingly loyal to leader Roland Robidoux.
”If he said, `God showed me something,’ then God showed him something,” Kidson said, adding that members were considered ”weak” if they questioned any of his teachings.
Karen Robidoux, 29, is facing charges she starved her 11-month-old son, Samuel, to death in 1999 to comply with a twisted religious vision brought forth by her sister-in-law, Michelle Mingo. Robidoux is married to Roland Robidoux’s son, Jacques, who was viewed by the sect as God’s son.
”This is like being married to Jesus, being married to Jacques, right?” said Robidoux’s attorney, Joseph Krowski.
”Yes,” replied Kidson.
Jacques Robidoux was convicted last year for his son’s murder and is serving life in jail. Mingo, who allegedly devised the ”prophecy” because she was jealous of Karen Robidoux’s svelte figure, is awaiting trial on accessory charges.
Krowski’s defense is that Karen Robidoux was forced through coercion and brainwashing to go along with the outrageous plot to stop feeding Samuel. The boy starved to death over 51 days.
Kidson recalled a bizarre June 1998 trip to Maine in which 20 members and 20 children left their Attleboro compound in the middle of the night with no food, money or diapers, destined for an unknown promised land. The trip ended at an Interstate 95 rest stop after three days during which children vomited from malnourishment and other members became ill, including Karen Robidoux, who was pregnant and nursing two babies.
”It’s a prison,” Kidson said of the group. ”Where are you going to go? Especially with your kids. I was fortunate enough to have a husband who had a head on his shoulders or I would still be there today.”
In another development, cultist David Corneau has apparently done an about-face and will refuse to testify in the trial, despite an immunity agreement that requires him to take the stand. Corneau struck a deal with prosecutors in 1999 in which he agreed to lead authorities to the remains of Samuel and Corneau’s stillborn son, Jeremiah.
Under the deal, Corneau and his wife, Rebecca, would not be charged but David Corneau would have to testify. He testified in Jacques Robidoux’s trial and before a grand jury that indicted the couple, but his lawyer, J.W. Carney Jr., said he recently had a change of heart.
Prosecutors could seek on Monday to have him jailed on contempt. Corneau was among several sect members who were jailed for stonewalling investigators and refusing to talk before a grand jury three years ago.
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