DA Vinci Code Hell As 'Slave', by Peter Allen, The Express, September 23, 2011

DA Vinci Code Hell As 'Slave'

By Peter Allen
The Express
September 23, 2011

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/273058/Da-Vinci-Code-hell-as-slave-

Catherine Tissier, now 40, said she was forced to work 14-hour days, seven days a week, for no pay

A SECRETIVE Roman Catholic society made famous by the The Da Vinci Code was yesterday accused of brainwashing young girls and keeping them as "modern-day slaves".

Two members of the Opus Dei society, who cannot be named, are on trial accused of abusing a girl then aged 14 when she enrolled at a school teaching hotel skills attached to one of their centres.

Catherine Tissier, now 40, said she was forced to work 14-hour days, seven days a week, for no pay.She was regularly injected with drugs to keep her "calm", was virtually starved, and had no social life whatsoever, it was claimed.

Ms Tissier's lawyer told Paris Correctional Court that hers was not an isolated case. Rodolphe Bosselut said: "This is not the trial of a single woman, but of dozens of others who, like my client, become modern slaves for Opus Dei.

"They were used as labour for the Opus centre next door. They did the cleaning – nothing to do with their education – at the hotel school. This scandal saw Opus Dei steal 15 years of her life."

Opus Dei was portrayed as a sinister, power-crazed sect in the Da Vinci Code novel by Dan Brown. But a spokesperson for Opus Dei denied the society was at fault, saying: "Catherine Tessier was an employee at the hotel school, she was of course in contact with Opus Dei and she chose that spiritual path. We have nothing to be guilty about."

Opus Dei employs 4,000 women hotel assistants in France, all of whom are expected to clean and cook for laymen and priests.