posted 05-19-2006 04:33 PM                       

quote: The Daily Telegraph, 19 May 2006

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Curtains were twitching in a quiet suburban street yesterday after police uncovered a sect whose followers base their lives on science fiction novels advocating the sexual enslavement of women.

Members of the group were interviewed in Darlington after a report that a Canadian woman was being held there against her will.

They helped the 29-year-old return home after she told a friend that she wanted to leave but had burnt her passport after joining the sect.

However, a police spokesman said no criminal activity was discovered and all those involved were "consenting adults".

They also investigated claims from a father in Essex who was concerned that his 18-year-old son was being trained to be "a master of his own sex slaves".

Officers spoke to the teenager and said they were satisfied that he was living voluntarily at the property, a pebble-dashed terrace house.

The so-called Kaotian sect is a splinter group of the Goreans, who have about 25,000 followers in Britain. They base their lives on a series of novels written by John Norman, the pen name of the elderly American university professor, John Frederick Lange.

The books describe life on the planet of Gor, where society is divided into castes and women are kept as slaves.

The popularity of the books spread on the internet, where there are sites, chatrooms and role-playing games dedicated to the fictional world.

Lee Thompson, 31, who lives at the house in Darlington and describes himself as a master who trains slaves, said women members cooked and cleaned as part of their duties, but there was also "an element of sexual domination".

In an interview with the Northern Echo, Mr Thompson, who was banned from a butcher's shop in the town for turning up with a young woman on a leash, said: "I have been called sick but I don't think what I do is bad."

He said about 350 followers met regularly in pubs and clubs around the North East, from Berwick-upon-Tweed to York. A follower for 15 years, Mr Thompson said he had been a master to about eight women.

"It works on the system that some women have a desire to serve," he said.

"Most people think it is a sexual thing, but it is about every action that they make, they do it for their master.

"Saying that, the girls will do everything they are told when it comes to sex, but it is all voluntary and all safe. I use internet chatrooms to meet people. The girls are quite willing.

"Lots of girls want to come and find out about it. They think it's exciting, but it's hard work for everyone. Girls leave when they've had enough."

Mr Thompson said he read the novel Tarnsman of Gor when he was 13. By the age of 16 he decided to pursue the lifestyle described.

He met Goreans - whom he described as rougher than Kaotians - at a nightclub. He became an "apprentice" at 16 and a "master" at 21.

One neighbour said on learning that she was living next to a sex slavery sect: "This is a Christian country and you don't really need that sort of thing here. This country's going down the pan."

A shopkeeper added: "I saw them in the town centre with the man leading her by the chain, I couldn't believe it."

A spokesman for Durham Police said: "An investigation by our officers did not disclose any criminal offences."

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