Year after taping ‘Scientology & the Aftermath,’ Victoria Locke is still waiting for justice

 
A year ago, Victoria Locke was one of several victims of sexual assault who taped a special episode of ‘Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath’ which was titled ‘Waiting for Justice.’

It was a special two-hour broadcast on A&E that ended the series, airing on August 26. It also featured Chrissie Carnell Bixler (one of Danny Masterson’s accusers who is suing the church), and Serge Gil.

Victoria wrote about her ordeal in a piece for the Bunker last August 13, which included this devastating passage…

The main abuse I endured was being ritually raped by my cousin, who was 26 years my senior. I was 11. This went on for months. Eventually, I told my brother and my auditor. I was terrified, but I knew I had to do it because my rapist also had two daughters that were younger than I was. I wanted someone to go with me to the police.

Advertisement

Long story short, my brother defended him. I was a “spiritual being” and knew what I was doing. My auditor began giving sessions to my cousin, and suddenly he was “cured.” Of all the hurt and abuse I went through in the church, the WORST memory I have was having to apologize to my abuser — in front of my brother and auditor — for allowing him to rape me as a child. I had to apologize to him for potentially putting his marriage at risk. I had to hug him.

Victoria marked the anniversary of the Aftermath taping with a brief but moving mention at her Facebook account yesterday. We asked her if she wanted to expand on that here at the Bunker, and she generously sent us these words.

 
This time last year, I was filming for the finale episode of Scientology and the Aftermath.

Four days after the date of shooting, I received a phone call from a relative. He was upset with me. He claimed that I was lying about my childhood trauma. He made some pretty serious accusations about me on the phone, which were untrue. I assumed that my brother (a Scientologist) had manipulated the family with textbook Fair Game tactics. The conversation was quick and one-sided, then it was over.

It has been one year since I’ve spoken to my family, even my grandmother. She raised me from infancy, and she was the only mother I’ve ever known. That phone call was the last time I heard her voice.

The first three months after I received the phone call were wrenching. I was angry. I felt helpless. How could my family continue to sweep the truth under the rug, and protect my abusers? Was their willful ignorance really worth my childhood? Worth our relationship?

Apparently so.

Shortly after that incident, something prompted me to check my email settings. I had already suspected that my brother was trying to “keep tabs” on me. I was right. I discovered that he had gained access to my personal email address without my consent. Not only that, but he had also been forwarding my email to his personal address. (Which, by the way, is a serious crime.) That confirmed that he had manipulated information he came across to use that against me. It was predictable.

After sitting with this grief and anger, I realized that being disconnected from my family had been a blessing in disguise.

I miss my grandmother, every day. However, I know that I deserved better. I know that my child self deserved to be protected. How could I justify maintaining relationships with people who would not acknowledge the abuse I endured under their watch?

Through this experience, I have found strength and new respect for myself. I told my truth, held on to it, and stood by it. It cost me my family. It cost me months of debilitating PTSD flashbacks and sleepless nights. But — I was OK. What was once one of my biggest fears, became a reality that I could accept. I wasn’t scared anymore. I fiercely defended my inner child when no one else did. That is a power that no one can take away from you. Now, I am thriving.

Over the past 12 months, I’ve found my true family in my friendships. My circle is entirely composed of people I love and trust. I’m so thankful for the support I continue to receive. I no longer feel the need to walk on eggshells, or hide my true self.

I have also taken this time to get back into real therapy to focus on ancestral healing. I’ve been building my family tree and am excited to share that I have found my biological family on my mom’s side! They have welcomed me with open arms, and I’m looking forward to getting to know more about my roots.

I am eternally thankful for the Aftermath team for giving me a platform to share my story. It has changed my life for the better.

All this to say: Own your truth. It might cost you some relationships. But in the end, integrity prevails. You owe it to yourself. It gets better.

— Victoria Locke

 
——————–

Another ‘Deep Sleep’ former doctor still unrepentant

Day five of the defamation trial against Steve Cannane and his 2016 book Fair Game continued in Sydney Friday (which was late last night here in the US), and the second plaintiff, John Herron, a former psychiatrist, got his chance to be cross-examined.

If anything, there was even worse evidence against Herron, who used the discredited practice of “Deep Sleep Therapy” — putting patients into deep sedation and then putting them through electro-convulsive therapy — than against his co-plaintiff Dr. John Gill, who testified earlier in the week. And like Gill, Herron was unrepentant, repeatedly saying that he simply didn’t accept the findings of a royal commission in 1990 that found him responsible for more than a dozen patient deaths.

And again like Dr. Gill, Herron is perpetrating this fraud of a lawsuit by pretending that Cannane’s book — which accurately quoted those findings of the royal commission — caused him more harm than the original inquiry, as well as further findings against Herron when he lost his license to practice in 1997. Here’s a citing from a newspaper article at the time about why Herron lost his license after review by a medical tribunal…

It found that Herron misdiagnosed a female patient as having pseudo-neurotic schizophrenia when she was suffering postnatal depression. The 50-year-old woman, known only as Patient A, was treated by Herron for more than 16 years without him ever testing his diagnosis.

He prescribed cocktails of anti-psychotic drugs and sedatives, even when he knew she had a drug and alcohol problem.

Advertisement

Patient B, a 38-year-old man, was referred to Herron in 1983 because of difficulties in his job with the State Rail Authority. For the next 10 years Herron saw him so often that the man became dependent on him.

Herron also inappropriately prescribed a stimulant and let the patient accumulate a large quantity of the drug, which left the tribunal “deeply troubled.”

The tribunal noted that all Herron’s peers who gave evidence strongly disapproved of his conduct. While it accepted Herron’s word that the two patients were “difficult” and he had treated them in good faith, his conduct gave “grave concern about [his] capacity to carry out the practice of medicine.”

Tom Blackburn, the attorney for Cannane and his publisher tried to get Herron to admit that the publicity of the royal commission and then the newspaper accounts about his de-licensing were the real harm that was caused to his reputation, not Cannane’s book, but Herron, like Gill, insisted that the medical community didn’t have a bad assessment of him.

The findings of the commission were “widely known but not necessarily widely accepted,” he claimed.

What a farce. Again, the fact that Cannane’s book accurately reflected what an official royal commission found (not alleged, found) would protect him from a lawsuit here in the U.S., but Australia’s defamation law is an utter joke.

 
——————–

Source Code

“One time a few years ago in a war that everybody fortunately has forgotten, a submarine appeared on my port bow. We’d been hanging over it for some time and it ran up its periscope. They used to throw up a patch of oil and then run the periscope up through the oil so as not to leave any salt scum or anything like that on their periscope lens, you know. So a blob of oil appeared and the fellow who was running the engine room telegraphs on the bridge was the only fellow looking in that direction. And he saw this blob of oil appear and he thought that was strange and interesting. We were going very slowly, we were almost dead in the water, and then right up through this big blob of brown oil on a blue sea comes a periscope — swswswswhhh — and looks around in every direction but at our ship! If it had turned another ninety degrees it would have read the biggest doggone 422 that you’d ever seen, fully magnified for the skipper. But anyway, the man on the engine room telegraphs is the only person who observed this incident in its various steps. The bridge was absolutely crammed with men because we were at general quarters. But nobody was looking right down there; they were looking out there, you know. And the fellow on the engine room telegraphs would say, ‘Thh.’ I finally noticed this strange performance and I was all set at this moment, you see, the second I saw this — flank speed and drop a depth charge right. Even if it blew our own stern off, that was fine, you see. And I said, ‘Khh!’ That was the awfulest mess of noncommunication! It finally came off all right. We dropped a depth charge and so on, but we were laughing about this for days. Nobody could talk!” — L. Ron Hubbard, June 5, 1955

 
——————–

Overheard in the FreeZone

“I’ve recently been cogniting on how life is a game. One cog I had was that in confronting and handling certain barriers I was thinking of applying solutions that would have sufficed a couple of hundred years ago, but had no place in today’s society. So on that 3rd dynamic problem I always became stumped. I was playing, or attempting to play, the game out of PT. When I realised what I was doing, a solution presented itself. It was a hell of a win for me on the 3rd dynamic! I got that from studying an ACC. LRH was a friggin genius, and I would thoroughly recommend that people coming out of the church continue up the Bridge because as you say, it’s the only way to learn what life is about and thereby get above it, and play a game that you really want to play, whatever that may be.”

 
——————–

Random Howdy

“I almost got castrated by an emu when I was a teenager.”

 
——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Jay Spina: Sentencing was set for April 3 in White Plains
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members: Trial set for October 7 in Los Angeles

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Waiting for an appellate decision from the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Hearing on motion for reconsideration set for August 11
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: July 8 (plaintiff attorneys pro hac vice), August 31-Sept 1 (CSI/RTC demurrer against Riales, Masterson demurrer), Oct 7-19 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach bankruptcy appeal: Oral arguments were heard on March 11 in Jacksonville
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Amended complaint filed.

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!

Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology survey for its members: Why aren’t you giving us more money?
[TWO years ago] First person: Four Scientologists have been shot, and you’re being sent to audit the pain away
[THREE years ago] Donna Fiore says Scientology is hounding her for dirt on stepdaughter Leah Remini
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s next big opening — its totally unneeded ‘Advanced Org’ in Australia
[FIVE years ago] If the Sea Org doesn’t legally exist, how does it run Scientology?
[SIX years ago] 60 years ago and today: Scientology in its heyday, and now not so much
[SEVEN years ago] Just What Oklahoma Tornado Victims Need: Scientology to the Rescue!

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 5, 2020 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2019 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2019), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 14 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele