Not all who leave The Family show intense hostility to them. Of course some are embittered by their experiences but others feel nostalgia and affection for the good aspects of life in the community. The expert evidence satisfies me that the majority look back more in sorrow than in anger. On the other hand, there is a vociferous minority who, no doubt with good cause, are deeply antagonistic. Many are involved in or used by the anti-cult organisations. I have become acutely aware of the violent, almost paranoid, mutual hostility and fear between some of these organisations and The Family. Because of the passions aroused, I have been on guard against attempts to deceive me by distortion and exaggeration of the truth. I am alive to the possibility that there has been a cross-fertilisation of the evidence so that hearsay evidence has been falsely dressed up in the guise of personal experience. It is plain that the Plaintiff has had the support of the anti-cult movement in procuring a considerable body of the documentary evidence which has been placed before me. At the end of the day there is very little live challenge to the authenticity of that evidence even if the manner in which it was obtained is open to question. The suggestion is made on behalf of The Family that the Plaintiff is a mere tool and dupe of the anti-cult movement. I reject that submission. She is a remarkably strong and determined lady who, having embarked upon this campaign has carried it through when many lesser individuals would have folded under the strain. NT is no less obdurate and her love/hate relationship with her mother is a demonstration of the observation I make that whilst there is much about both of these ladies which commands my admiration and my respect, each of them in their way and particularly in their dealings with each other, can be jolly difficult!
