Children of the Cult – episode 4 – Escaping the Family

Children of the Cult – episode 4 – Escaping the FamilyThis episode starts and ends with disturbing clips from the murder/suicide video of Ricky Rodriguez, the son of cult leader Karen Zerby. Early 1990s, global media scrutiny intensifies as many in the second generation escape and expose child abuse in the cult, which is now rebranded as the Family. Fearing persecution, members are ordered to burn all incriminating evidence of abuse in the cult’s documents, photos and videos. Children and teens are coached on how to deceive and lie to media and authorities.The largest ever UK child custody case exposes mountains of evidence of extreme child abuse in the cult. Celeste’s sister testifies against the cult, Celeste is forced by cult leaders to oppose her sister’s testimony and defend the cult, which causes her great psychological distress. The judge believes Karen Zerby’s lies that they now denounce the perverted sexual teachings of the deceased David Berg, so he allows 3 year-old to remain in the cult with his mother.Teen Hope is trapped in Europe and sex-trafficked by the cult. She secretly plots a dramatic escape from Prague back to the UK and sets herself free. Celeste is recruited into Karen Zerby’s secretive household in Portugal and discovers Zerby is still sex-obsessed. Celeste meets Zerby’s son, Ricky, who is disgusted by his mother’s leadership and tells Celeste they are in a cult. Ricky leaves the cult. Celeste gets pregnant and doesn’t want to raise her child in that environment, so asks to leave Zerby’s home, but she’s told she can’t because she knows where Zerby lives. When Zerby moves, Celeste leaves the cult and returns to the UK, where she has the support of her mother and sister. Many of the second generation didn’t have that support when escaping the cult, so life after the cult was very difficult, with many spiralling into dark paths, including suicide.Second generation survivors organize to expose the cult’s systemic abuses, and provide the FBI with evidence, but the legal system fails to bring justice to those survivors. Ricky, recognizing there would be no justice for most survivors, plots to murder his mother, Karen Zerby, but unable to find her he murders her assistant, one of his abusers, then kills himself. It made headlines around the world. Zerby has no remorse, she blamed Ricky for yielding to the devil. Verity and Hope begin their quest for justice by separately reporting their life-long abuse to Scottish police, who believe their stories and start their investigations.***This five-part documentary series, Children of the Cult, charts the remarkable true story of three British women born and raised in the infamous cult Children of God, now known as The Family International. Hope, Verity, and Celeste speak out about their years of abuse within the cult and their incredible fight for survival, escape, and quest for justice. Hope and Verity both successfully brought criminal convictions against their abusers, a very rare outcome for survivors of that cult. I participated in this documentary, primarily by giving many hours of interviews to the producer’s research assistant for background information. I appear briefly in a couple of these episodes. I consider it the best documentary on that cult so far. It is no longer available anywhere, so I am making this important documentary series available here. Subscribe for free to my page and you will receive emails with links to each video or article I post.Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit perrybulwer344598.substack.com