OUR HELL WITH THE CULT; Family claim they were brainwashed at Scottish mansion; Daughter was forced to marry a fat, balding cult member; Phone calls were banned and women treated like slaves.
A FAMILY trapped in a bizarre religious cult claim they were BRAINWASHED and forced into an arranged marriage.
Shattered Scot Christine Carroll and her family have broken their silence to tell of their life of hell at the hands of the secretive group.
Christine, her son, Craig, and daughter, Lee, have all escaped the clutches of the mysterious Christian Assemblies Group.
They had first come across the cult when Christine flew back to Scotland with her son after her marriage in Australia ended in divorce.
But last night Craig, blasted the cult leaders who took them in to their Scots HQ, then:
Forced his sister into an arranged marriage;
Told all women they were only "cooks and mattresses";
Hid passports of devotees and demanded all their cash;
Banned members from making any external calls or even using the telephone.
Craig, 24, who has Australian nationality, was lured into the cult's Scots base at pounds 250,000 Pitversie House in rural Abernethy, Perthshire.
His sister, Lee, stayed in Australia with her dad but became worried about Craig when the letters she received from Scotland started mentioning a church group.
Craig said: "After we got to Scotland, my mum met these people in the cult.
"At first they seemed really nice, normal. We both got quite involved and ended up moving in with them.
"They always said that unless we tried harder to please God, we would be in really deep trouble.
"You don't convert people to religion by shouting and screaming at them."
Craig got a job as an apprentice upholsterer but says every PENNY he earned had to go into cult coffers.
And when Lee flew to Scotland in a bid to RESCUE her brother, she ended up as a disciple of the Christian Assemblies.
She claims she was forced to MARRY a complete stranger.
And only escaped when her "husband" let her out of his sight for just a few moments.
Lee, 26, told the Sunday Mail: "When I arrived, everything was so nice that I thought Craig had been making it up.
"I was completely taken in."
As soon as Lee was baptised into the cult, she was handed a long list of chores and told what to wear and how her hair should be cut.
The cult members included respectable doctors, lawyers and teachers.
The prayer meetings were harmless at first, with prayer music and hugging inside a giant marquee at the back of the massive Scots HQ.
But as soon as members were baptised, the "pastors" became more sinister. They would shout and scream at the disciples and hurl abuse at Craig and Lee.
They were made to clean floors with tooth brushes and sweep the pavements outside with tiny brushes.
But Lee's biggest nightmare was when she was introduced to a fat, balding middle-aged stranger...
Who had been chosen by the cult leaders as her HUSBAND.
She said: "They told me if I didn't become his wife, my family would be damned to hell.
"I wasn't allowed any money and I couldn't make any phone calls.
"He kept me cleaning all day and all night."
It was only after a year in her nightmare cult marriage that Lee finally had her chance to escape.
Her husband had, for once, left the lock off the telephone...
Giving Lee just enough time to call a friend and tell her where she was.
Minutes later, the pal zoomed up in a car and Lee jumped in.
Craig escaped their clutches while on a tour of Australia with the cult. He managed to slip away from the group.
His mum got away from the Scots HQ at about the same time.
The Christian Assemblies Group was probed by the Scottish Charities Office after receiving complaints about their status.
We understand the group was heavily fined.
Followers are told they can be saved by prophecies - but only the leaders know what the prophecies are.
The cult came here in 1991 after breaking from its mother church in Australia.
It stalked students and young professionals in a bid to recruit new members.
The boss of the cult in Scotland is Australian- born Scott Williams.
He lives in a secluded house in Dollar, Clackmannanshire.
From the outside, it looks like any family home, surrounded by fir trees and tall hedges.
But anyone taking a closer look can see that the birdboxes contain video CAMERAS.
There are movement monitors, heavy iron gates and a one-way intercom.
When Sunday Mail reporters visited, one of William's assistants replied gruffly: "No comment. Just leave us alone."
At Pitversie House, Stewart Benzie and his wife Marjorie are caretakers for the cult.
They are both locals who have joined the Assemblies.
Stewart said: "These people are telling lies.
"Yes, they did stay here, I can remember them all. They once belonged to us."
When asked whether THEY belonged to anyone, Benzie added: "Perhaps that was the wrong phrase to use."
Pitversie's security system is better than the one at the local police station, which is less than 100 yards down the road in the sleepy village.
It too contains video cameras nestling inside birdboxes, movement monitors, intercoms and guard dogs.
Razor wire and barbed wire also runs along the perimeter fence at the cult's Scottish headquarters.
Locals say they don't know whether that's to keep people IN or OUT.
One said: "We have witnessed so many strange things there.
"Hundreds of them turn up for meetings and happy-clappy sessions."
Wolfgang Frantz, one of the cult's leaders in Scotland, regularly invited locals into Pitversie House for "prayer meetings". But after seeing inside, most locals decided his "church" was not for them.
Frantz and other cult leaders refused to comment on the Carroll family's allegations.
Now Craig, Lee, and mum Christine are re-building their lives.
They are receiving therapy to overcome the brainwashing they say they endured.
Craig said: "I just want to forget about the whole thing now, but it has left its mark on me.
"I still have bad dreams about it."
And Lee added: "This has brought us closer together.
"Only we can understand what we have been through. It has created a special bond between us."