Police in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster say they will look into new allegations of violence and abuse of children in the religious movement Faderhuset.
According to reporting by DR, police inspector Allan Holm confirmed the decision on Saturday. He told the newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad that officers will examine whether the case gives grounds for a criminal prosecution.
The move follows an inquiry from Kristeligt Dagblad about allegations made in a new book. The book, titled “Barn af Faderhuset”, was published on Monday. It was written by journalist Kristian Corfixen.
In the book, former member Noah Rosendal describes how the leaders of the movement punished children. Per his account, the methods included humiliation, violence, hard physical labor, control and isolation from their parents.
Leader rejects the allegations
Kristeligt Dagblad says it tried without success to reach Faderhuset’s leader, Ruth Kristiansen, who previously used the name Ruth Evensen. She did address the matter on Thursday in the podcast “Q&Co”.
There she denied having hit children, and she denied that Faderhuset has any children attached to it at all. She described the reporting as a smear campaign built on untruths, and said she has not spoken to a journalist for at least 10 years.
Kristiansen also argued that the movement has been targeted for many years. She noted that no one took an interest in Faderhuset before it bought the Ungdomshuset building at Jagtvej 69 in Copenhagen in 2001.
Earlier reports were dropped
Kristeligt Dagblad reports that South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police received two complaints about Faderhuset in 2008. One concerned a sexual assault, the other physical punishment.
At the time, police concluded that there was no reason to assume a criminal offense had been committed. Neither report led to charges. The new assessment now under way is based on the material presented in the book.
Faderhuset moved to Bandholm on the island of Lolland in 2006. There the congregation bought Bandholm Hotel and used it as its base and gathering place. The group left Bandholm and Denmark in 2016.
The purchase of Ungdomshuset placed Faderhuset at the center of one of Copenhagen’s most contentious property disputes. The building was demolished in 2007 after the movement took ownership. Questions about the group’s internal practices have surfaced periodically since, including the complaints that were dropped in 2008.
Police have not indicated a timeline for their review, and no charges have been filed. Allegations of abuse and questions about how they are handled by authorities feed into wider debate about safety and crime in Denmark. Kristiansen maintains that the accounts in the book are false.
