{"id":466664,"date":"2026-02-08T15:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466664\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T15:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:33:16","slug":"brethren-charity-sues-woman-allegedly-abused-by-an-elder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466664\/","title":{"rendered":"Brethren charity sues woman allegedly abused by an elder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Michael<\/p>\n

February 8, 2026 \u2014 7:52pm<\/p>\n

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The Exclusive Brethren\u2019s Australian-based charity, the Rapid Relief Team, is suing a former member who escaped the church aged 17 after what she says was years of childhood sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

The former member, Cheryl Bawtinheimer, has complained to police in her home town in Canada that she was sexually abused between the ages of about three and 12 by an elder of what\u2019s now known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.<\/p>\n

\"CherylCheryl Bawtinheimer (nee Hope), who escaped from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church after years of alleged sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

In the past four years she has, with other former church members, produced a podcast on YouTube called Get a Life: Ex-Cult Conversations. The podcast focuses on what they say is widespread abuse and mistreatment within the church, which is run out of Sydney by so-called \u201cMan of God\u201d Bruce Hales.<\/p>\n

Now the Rapid Relief Team (RRT), the church\u2019s public-facing charity, alleges Bawtinheimer infringed its copyright in some of those videos. The Brethren charity is demanding a jury trial in California, unspecified financial damages, and that a number of Bawtinheimer\u2019s videos be taken down.<\/p>\n

The RRT attends natural disasters and other large events \u2013 including the police line at a recent murder investigation<\/a> \u2013 to hand out refreshments to emergency service workers.<\/p>\n

In Victoria over summer, they served food and chatted to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has previously called the church a \u201ccult\u201d. They claimed on a Facebook post this demonstrated Albanese was \u201cshowing support for our community\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Plymouth Brethren Christian Church\u2019s Rapid Relief Team Facebook post featuring Anthony Albanese at the fire front in Victoria in January 2026, claiming his \u201csupport for our community\u201d.Facebook<\/p>\n

A number of Bawtinheimer\u2019s podcasts have criticised the RRT, claiming it\u2019s intended not for any real charitable purpose, but to put a positive gloss on an otherwise brutal church. As part of these videos, the charity\u2019s Kookaburra logo, \u201cCookie\u201d, has flashed up on screen.<\/p>\n

The church\u2019s charity claims in a legal filing obtained by this masthead that Bawtinheimer\u2019s actions have caused them material loss and damage. The lawsuit was filed in the district court of northern California, where YouTube is based.<\/p>\n

The RRT has demanded all videos mentioning the charity be removed, and that Bawtinheimer pay them any profits derived from the videos, as well as \u201cmonetary relief\u201d. YouTube has already removed seven videos in response to complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want everything gone,\u201d Bawtinheimer said. \u201cIf they get a judge in their favour, they\u2019ll get rid of everything. One video had 336 views, the other had 160 or something. We don\u2019t make any money on this. We\u2019ve made a few hundred dollars total on YouTube. It\u2019s a classic intimidation tactic to try to shut me up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"BawtinheimerBawtinheimer as a little girl in the Brethren.<\/p>\n

Bawtinheimer said her long-time alleged abuser was photographed in 2023 wearing an RRT uniform. \u201cOne of the charity\u2019s volunteers in Canada was a man who sexually trafficked me \u2013 and now this charity is suing me,\u201d Bawtinheimer said.<\/p>\n

The Rapid Relief Team was set up in 2013 at the same time as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church successfully argued to the British charities regulator that it should keep its tax-free status because it was serving a genuine public benefit.<\/p>\n

The RRT is described by critics and many who have left the church as an attempt to rehabilitate the Brethren\u2019s poor global reputation, which includes separating families, treating women as second-class citizens and preaching hatred of non-believers.<\/p>\n

Leaked church documents<\/a> also reveal that one of the charity\u2019s driving purposes is to \u201cengage with a person of influence or status at a local level\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"AA Rapid Relief Team member (left) talks with National Party Federal Member for Parkes, Jamie Chaffey, at the Lake Cargelligo police station during the search for alleged murderer Julian Ingram in January.Kate Geraghty<\/p>\n

Court documents show the Kookaburra logo, Cookie, was bought by the charity in September last year. The purchase occurred soon after Bawtinheimer\u2019s husband confronted her alleged abuser at his home in Canada.<\/p>\n

In that videotaped confrontation, the abuser appeared at times to acknowledge his crimes. Bawtinheimer has reported the alleged abuse to local police, but no arrest has been made or charges laid.<\/p>\n

Three months later, in December, the Australian charity\u2019s California-based lawyers, Brown Rudnick, started issuing copyright demands to YouTube to remove Bawtinheimer\u2019s RRT videos. YouTube\u2019s copyright takedown policy uses a three-strike system geared towards removing allegedly infringing content and penalising creators.<\/p>\n

Three active copyright strikes within a 90-day period results in a YouTube channel being terminated, all videos being removed and a ban on creating new channels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want the channel scrubbed of RRT,\u201d Bawtinheimer says.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe offending logo.<\/p>\n

One video RRT has already succeeded in taking down is by former church member, New Zealand-based Lindy Jacomb, who runs her own charity for people escaping \u201chigh demand religious groups\u201d. In Jacomb\u2019s video, the logo, and one of RRT\u2019s catch lines, \u201ccompassion in action\u201d flashes onto the screen as Jacomb recalls the \u201cprofound trauma of being excommunicated from this church and the ongoing separation from family and community\u201d.<\/p>\n

She calls for RRT to collaborate with her own charity, Olive Leaf Network<\/a>, in helping those who leave the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to say to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church and to the Rapid Relief Team: how is it that you can give out branded bottled water and soap to strangers, and yet we, former members from your church community, are left branded with trauma. What are you going to do about us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrethrenBrethren leader, Sydney businessman Bruce Hales.<\/p>\n

The copyright complaint means Jacomb\u2019s video is no longer available on YouTube.<\/p>\n

An RRT spokeswoman did not answer a series of questions from this masthead because the matter was before the courts.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Brethren<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not be commenting at this time on active legal proceedings, other than to confirm that this action relates solely to the protection of RRT\u2019s copyright work,\u201d the spokeswoman said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike any responsible organisation, RRT has taken steps to protect itself from its own brand being infringed which undermine the efforts of our hardworking volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked specifically about targeting an alleged sex abuse victim, the spokeswoman said: \u201cRRT takes any allegation of abuse very seriously and would always encourage appropriate involvement of the authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RRT has tax-free status<\/a> as a charity in Australia. Its financial report to the Australian Charities and Not-for profits Commission are overdue, but the previous year\u2019s accounts show it had a $4.3 million cash surplus.<\/p>\n

Businesses in Goulburn whose owners run RRT, were raided by the Australian Tax Office in 2024<\/a>. There is no suggestion that the raids are connected to the RRT or its work. The ATO investigation into the Brethren\u2019s vast financial \u201cecosystem\u201d \u2013 which includes businesses, investment vehicles, charities and schools \u2013 is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Taxpayers have given it $680,000 via federal government grants<\/a> since 2020, paying for mobile coffee machines, cooking equipment, lighting towers and other equipment. The largest grants, of up to $22,000 each, were paid under the Morrison government\u2019s heavily rorted Commonwealth\u2019s \u201cStronger Communities\u201d scheme.<\/p>\n

Church members donated hundreds of thousands of dollars<\/a> to right-wing activist group Advance during the last federal election, and the church\u2019s leaders ordered thousands of its members to man polling booths<\/a> in support of Peter Dutton\u2019s election campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"MichaelMichael Bachelard<\/a> is a senior writer and former deputy editor and investigations editor of The Age. He has worked in Canberra, Melbourne and Jakarta, has written two books and won multiple awards for journalism, including the Gold Walkley.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 8, 2026 \u2014 7:52pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-466664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}