The church regarded as an 'evil cult'
Friday, 1 June 2007

With A-list celebrities among its followers and a string of unsavoury allegations from former members, the Church of Scientology is rarely far from the headlines.

But newly released government files from the National Archives at Kew show controversy surrounding the church in the UK is nothing new.

In the 1960s and 1970s officials debated whether or not to lift a ban on foreigners entering the UK to work or study at the church.

In the documents, high-ranking mandarins refer to the church as "evil" with some describing it repeatedly as a "cult".

Many of the documents discuss a series of lawsuits filed by the church in the years after the entry ban was introduced in 1968. the rest