Scientology leader’s niece turns on Cruise

The niece of Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige (pictured) has attacked the actor Tom Cruise for "supporting a religion that tears apart families, both in the media and monetarily". Jenna Hill Miscavige wrote last month to a senior church official in a letter that has since been distributed on the internet: "Hell, if Scientology can't keep his [Cruise's] family together - then why on earth should anyone believe the church helps brings families together!" Since her denouncement, Hill Miscavige claims she's been subjected to harassment.

Hill Miscavige's mother and father (David Miscavige's older brother) left Scientology in 2000, but she stayed on until 2005, during which time she says she was kept in a boarding school, only allowed to see her parents once a year and subjected to a bizarre daily regimen.

"We were required to write down all transgressions... similar to a sin in the Catholic religion. After writing them all down, we would receive a meter check on the Electropsychometer to make sure we weren't hiding anything, and you would have to keep writing until you came up clean. This is from the age of five until I was 12."

Since her letter appeared, Hill Miscavige has told journalist Philip Recchia: "The church has contacted several of my friends, telling them that I am smearing the church and I am going to be declared a suppressive person and asking my friends if they would disconnect from me and, in at least one case, insisting that they do."

Hill Miscavige, 23, wrote the letter after Scientology attacked Andrew Morton's recently published book, Tom Cruise: an Unauthorised Biography, in which Morton claimed among other things that Cruise was effectively number two in the Scientology church hierarchy. On January 14, Karin Pouw, a spokesman for the church, denounced the book as a "bigoted defamatory assault replete with lies".

Helped by the controversy, Morton's book is currently No. 3 on the New York Times non-fiction list. Bert Fields, Cruise's influential lawyer, initially threatened a $100m lawsuit but no legal action has surfaced.

Meanwhile, a mysterious group known only as 'Anonymous' is seeking to arrange a worldwide peaceful protest on February 10 at all Scientology headquarters. Anonymous decided to take on the sect after it demanded last month that YouTube and other websites remove video clips featuring an interview with Cruise talking about Scientology.