Former priest Chris Brain faces retrial on sex assault charges

A former priest convicted of abusing members of a “cult-like” church group will face a second trial next year.

Chris Brain, 68, ran the influential Nine O’Clock Service (NOS) in Sheffield in the 1980s and 1990s.

Last month, he was found guilty of 17 indecent assaults against nine women. A jury at Inner London Crown Court cleared him of 15 further counts of indecent assault, but could not reach a verdict on four counts of indecent assault and one rape.

Prosecutor Tim Clark KC told a hearing on Thursday that the Crown Prosecution Service was seeking a retrial on the remaining charges. The court heard it was scheduled to begin on 1 September 2026 and was expected to last about four weeks.

The five outstanding charges relate to four women who were part of the NOS, which blended live music and multi-media displays in services and attracted hundreds of young people to its congregation.

A case management hearing to discuss the sentencing of Brain for the charges on which he was found guilty was set for 2 October.

Brain, now of Park Road in Wilmslow, Cheshire, was fast-tracked for priesthood by the Church of England in 1991 as the popularity of the NOS grew.

But the movement collapsed in controversy in 1995 after a number of women alleged they had been abused by Brain.

At the end of Brain’s trial, the Bishop of Sheffield offered an “unreserved apology” to victims for “an appalling abuse of power and leadership which should never have occurred”.