A former Scientologist who says she was a “child slave” and alleges she saw a six-year-old boy chained up in a ship’s hold is disappointed the Senate has blocked a full inquiry into the religious organisation.

Keryn’s decision to speak openly about her experiences comes after ABC1′s Four Corners program, The Ex-Files, in which former members told of forced abortions, pressure to work extreme hours and being forced to hand over large sums of money.

Addressing a conference of cult survivors in Brisbane today, Senator Nick Xenophon said a new motion for a new parliamentary inquiry might include a push for police to take criminal action against cults.

He was also attracted to using the Trade Practices Act to prosecute groups for false and misleading conduct if they wrongly claimed to provide therapeutic benefits to their devotees.

The conference has heard a number of heart-rending stories from different religion-based and therapeutic cults.

Germany’s state broadcaster is locked in a row with the Church of Scientology which wants to block an upcoming feature film that depicts the controversial organisation as totalitarian and unethical.

According to the makers of Until Nothing Remains, the €2.5m (£2.3 m) drama, which is due to air in a prime-time slot at the end of March, is based on the true story of Heiner von Rönns, who left Scientology and suffered the subsequent break-up of his family.

Labor and the Coalition have been accused of choosing to look away from claims of abuse in the Church of Scientology, by blocking a Senate investigation into the tax-free status of religious groups.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon will next week introduce another motion for an inquiry into specific allegations against Scientology.

In Australia the Scientology cult has been hit by a fresh wave of allegations, likely to give added weight to calls for a Senate inquiry into the church.

Several Australians have spoken out for the first time about their experiences with the church, accusing it of forced abortions, holding slave labour camps and exploiting child workers.

The Church of Scientology has a lengthy history of hate- and harassment activities against critics and former members. The St. Petersburg Times has faithfully investigated the cult, and most recently ran a series of special reports in which former top-Scientologists alleged abuse at the hands of the organization’s top leader.

Now the cult does what it has always done: go after its critics.

On Friday, six ex-scientologists spoke out about their experiences inside the Church of Scientology at a Press Conference in Hollywood.

Their tales of harrowing abuse suffered in the Scientology organization are the latest in a long list of exposes about the cult.

In Scientology: The Religion of the Stars author Ian Halperin goes undercover to reveal never-before-told secrets of the strange, science-fiction inspired church of the stars.

Halperin infiltrates the Church of Scientology posing as a gay actor attracted by the church’s claim that it can cure homosexuality. Rebuffed until he claims that his uncle is a rich millionaire thinking of joining the church, he is given unprecedented access and allowed to video his entire experience. The results are explosive.

”I challenge the Church of Scientology – if they are so confident of their position, they should welcome a Senate inquiry where they can give evidence,” Senator Xenophon said yesterday.

The ‘Church’ meanwhile portrays a group of its critics as a ‘hate group’ — an act of hypocrisy given Scientology’s lengthy history of hate- and harassment activities.

A new German TV movie tells the story of a man whose family life was destroyed after joining the Church of Scientology. The drama, which is based on a true story, was filmed in secret to prevent the organization taking legal action against the project.

Heiner von Rönn could reel off a sobering list of the people and things he has lost to Scientology. They include thousands of euros, 10 years of his life, his former wife, and both his children.

A DNA test was ordered today for William Rex Fowler, a 58-year-old businessman and founder of an Adams County software company accused of killing his former business partner.

Fowler’s wife, Janet, reportedly told investigators that her husband is a Scientologist “and would not have gone without a fight.” [video]

Among the mysteries in software firm founder William Rex Fowler’s alleged killing of ex-partner Thomas Ciancio is whether Fowler’s self-professed devotion to the Church of Scientology played a role in the workplace shooting.

Employees told investigators that Ciancio quit the firm in November because he was upset that Fowler had allegedly taken $200,000 from the company “without permission and gave it to a church or some type of charity,” the arrest warrant affidavit said. [video]

After 33 years as a Scientologist, the past 13 as the star of Scientology’s recruitment video, Larry Anderson is walking away.

He says the church failed to deliver the spiritual gains it promised.

Naturally he wants his money back…

A leading critic of Scientology is to travel to Australia to support Senator Nick Xenophon’s campaign for an inquiry into the tax-exempt status of the church.

As a Scientology, Gerry Armstrong tried to debunk criticism of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard but says, “I discovered that the lies that I was trying to debunk were actually the truth and that Hubbard had lied…”

In Italy, the pre-Christmas release of the book “The Courage to Speak Out – Stories of ex-Scientologists” was met with a promise from the National Church of Scientology of Italy to bring legal action against the author and “whomever has assisted her.”

The publisher’s press officer says “it won’t be up to the reactions of Scientology to determine the choices of the editor and this is not because we wish to be noticed, but because we carry out a service to the Church and to society.”

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