When Vicky Unsworth, now 25, met her best friend’s boyfriend, Lee, chill went through her. But just months later she was embroiled in a sci-fi sex cult that nearly destroyed her life…
Walking into my best friend Kathy’s* living room, I couldn’t wait to meet her new boyfriend.
“This is Lee,” Kathy said, gesturing towards a dark figure huddled over a computer screen.
He turned around and flashed a crooked smile at me. I felt a cold shiver go through my body.
He made me feel uncomfortable, but Kathy and I had been best friends since school so I knew I had to be polite to him.
I was just 17 and was living apart from my family, so I always went to her for support and advice
About a month later I suffered a miscarriage. I had been desperate to have a baby and began to slide into depression.
But Lee told me he could he help.
“My grandmother was a pagan high priestess. I know a ritual that can help you have a baby,” he said.
Vulnerable and on the verge of a break down, I agreed to go ahead with the ritual.
He led me into his bedroom, which was pitch black except for a few candles.
On the floor a circle and strange symbols had been drawn in white chalk.
Feeling uneasy I told Lee that I had changed my mind but he became angry.
“Do you want to have a baby? Or do you want to keep having miscarriages?” he hissed, his face red and contorted.
Scared, I agreed.
He picked up a dirty black cloth and wrapped it around my head, blindfolding me.
Then he told me to undress and pushed me down to kneel on the floor and began chanting.
I felt his rancid breath on my neck as he bent down to tell me that oral sex was part of the ritual.
After forcing himself on me, he took my blindfold off and laughed when he saw tears streaming down my face.
“You better not tell Kathy about that. She’ll blame you and you will lose the only person you’ve got,” he warned me.
I quickly got dressed and left the flat.
Back home, I jumped in the shower and scrubbed my skin until it was red raw and brushed my teeth until my gums bled.
A few days later Kathy came to tell me that she was pregnant.
She seemed so happy and I began helping her out with her pregnancy, but every time I went over to visit I had to see Lee.
He kept telling me that nobody would want me if I wasn’t able to have children.
I was all alone and vulnerable, and I began to believe Lee’s lies.
He convinced me to participate in more rituals that we kept a secret from Kathy.
As her bump grew, Lee started losing interest in her and told me I was his girlfriend.
I slid further into depression and had now become Lee’s sex slave. He would lock me in my room and terrify me into submission.
One day he needed to use an internet café but had no money, so he let the owner rape me to pay for it.
And when he couldn’t pay the rent, a landlord raped me instead.
Eventually I became pregnant and he told me that his rituals had worked.
But as I grew bigger, I discovered that he had gone back to Kathy and she was also expecting.
After I gave birth my son was taken away from me and I realised that I had to do something to get out.
A baby was what I had always wanted but now I had one and I had lost him.
One day I waited until he left the flat and I escaped, moving to a hostel.
I managed to find work and my own place and began living my life again.
The feeling of freedom was amazing. I knew he could never touch me again.
I feel betrayed by Kathy.
She was my best friend but she had known all along the hell I was being put through.
I never saw her again but I heard that she had had four children with Lee.
Trying to forget about those nightmare years I moved on with my life.
But one day I opened the paper to see Lee’s face.
He had become notorious for running a sex cult.
He led women around on dog leashes through the town and made them obey his every command.
He believed in the Kaotian way of life, based on sci-fi novels, in which men dominate women and treat them as slaves.
I decided it was time for justice and reported him for what he had done to me.
Going through the trial brought back terrible memories but when it was over I was elated.
In December 2008 at Teeside Crown Court he admitted procuring a woman to have sexual intercourse and three counts of rape were left on file.
I now feel able to move on with my life.
I have a new boyfriend who is supportive and have gone back to college.
Lee ruined what should have been the best years of my life but I’m determined that he will not ruin the rest.
*Kathy’s name has been changed
Image courtesy of :DaR