Nxivm: Smallville star Allison Mack pulled me deeper into ‘sex cult’, says alleged victim
‘There were so many things added on later once you were sealed in,’ says 31-year-old
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Your support makes all the difference.Allison Mack, the Smallville star, played a key role in luring a struggling actress into the Nxivm (“nex-e-um”) cult and told her to “be a good slave”, a court has reportedly heard.
The woman had moved to New York City from Los Angeles in an attempt to boost her career when a former boyfriend suggested she take a course called “The Source”, run by Nxivm, US media reported.
Nxivm collapsed when its guru-like leader, Keith Raniere, was arrested last year following allegations women were branded with his initials and that the group functioned as a sex-slave cult.
Nicole, identified only by her first name, told a court on Monday that after a short course in 2015 she was persuaded to take more Source classes – despite misgivings about the group’s hierarchical nature.
Struggling to make ends meet, she began teaching them as well, CNN and others reported. At an emotional low ebb in 2016, she contacted Mack about her fear she had “screwed up everything” by moving across the country.
The 31-year-old concluded her testimony on Monday, telling Brooklyn’s Federal District Court that through Mack’s urging she had become part of a secretive sub-group of Nxivm called DOS, reports said.
Her involvement became steadily deeper, she told the court. She said: ”There were so many things that were added on later once you were, like, sealed into this situation.”
The New York Times and others reported that Nicole was made to hand over “collateral”, or compromising material, to Mack to prove her loyalty. Mack is later said to have pushed Nicole to communicate with Mr Raniere.
Mr Raniere, 58, is said to have eventually responded before arranging a sexual encounter. Nicole said she was blindfolded before being driven to an unknown location and tied, naked, to a table, according to US media reports.
Then, a person she had not known was present performed a sex act on her while Raniere questioned her about her sexual history, she reportedly added.
Before one meeting with Mr Raniere, Nicole said Mack had instructed her to “go be a good slave” and pledge to do anything he asked of her, according to CNN.
Nicole left Nxivm in 2017.
She was giving evidence during Raniere’s trial on charges of sex trafficking, human trafficking, forced labour and racketeering, which he denies.
Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges earlier this year.
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