Felicity Burke, who endured years of cult violence and sexual abuse. Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation, by Jack Fisher
Felicity Bourke, locked in a metal cage wearing a stainless steel slave collar, realized she could no longer seem to escape the control of James Davis.
Felicity called James Davis, a 40-year-old former Australian Army soldier, the "master" of her long history of psychological manipulation, coercive control and numerous instances of physical and sexual violence.
In early March 2021, Davis was arrested by the Australian Federal Police and charged with enslavement.
James Davis
An investigation uncovers the horrific inside story of a sex cult
On March 15, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast an in-depth investigative report that had previously provided information from the five-month investigation to the Australian Federal Police. Hundreds of photos, videos and documents collected, as well as information provided by more than 20 women, provide a glimpse into the shocking violence and horrific insides of Davis and his sex cult.
Davis has long abused women physically and sexually, and has used social media to keep an eye on young, vulnerable girls.
Before his arrest, Davis had been living in a remote village in New South Wales with six women he called "slaves". The women have previously said they have chosen to live with him voluntarily.
Even after years of extreme physical violence and sexual abuse, Felicity said this to those around her at the outset.
Due to extreme psychological manipulation, it took many years for Felicity to realize that she was a victim.
Felicity said: "I have been hiding this matter for a long time and I am ashamed of it. He deprived me of all my rights as a human being and I lost the ability to live independently. I was afraid he would kill me. ”
Now, Felicity wants Davis to be judicially decided: "I know his true face." He was a very, very dangerous man. ”
She describes the organization as a "cult," hoping to encourage others to come forward and tell the truth by sharing her story: "In that situation, all power is taken away, and it's really hard to get rid of." ”
James Davis and the six women he called "slaves."
Davis often tells his followers on social media that he's just living an alternative life with multiple partners.
However, the accounts of those women who fled were very different from them. It was like a cult controlled by Davis and his followers, according to their descriptions, hosting drug- and alcohol-filled sex parties across NSW, forcing young girls to engage in sexual activity and inflicting violence on them.
Despite numerous complaints to federal authorities and state governments, Davis, who has been convicted of crimes for years, has been at large.
Photo of Davis during his military service
Beaten in the street, locked in cages... Hundreds of pages of diaries documenting inhuman abuse
In 2012, at just 21 years old, Felicity moved from a remote area of New South Wales to Sydney in preparation for becoming a police officer. It was then that she met James Davis.
Davis was a full 10 years older than Felicity, with a burly body and a thick tattoo, which looked a little scary. Felicity's parents still remember him as controlling, macho, and misogynistic.
Felicity's mother, Dianne Burke, recalled: "I found him very arrogant, very rude, very eager to get ahead. "Davis, she said, was unabashed about controlling Felicity." I said to my husband at the time that we were in big trouble. This man is very dangerous. ”
Diane Anne Burke
It didn't take long for Davis to cut off Felicity's connection with her family and begin abusing her. They had been together for just 4 months when Davis beat her in the street and kept punching her in the face. "If I have the slightest opinion, he will be angry..."
This physical violence is also accompanied by psychological manipulation. Davis forced her to sign a contract promising to "obey and be his slave." Davis explained to her that abusive behavior is part of a "master/slave" relationship in BDSM (sexual abuse). BDSM refers to sexual activities that include forms of bondage, restraint, domination, abuse, or obedience.
According to Davis, the beating was a "punishment" for her to "develop the idea of not wanting to be a slave" or for failing to act according to his request. His requirements for her are exhaustive, including cooking, cleaning and sex.
"He's in control, he's going to control me completely," Felicity said, "and his goal is to make me his slave." ”
Felicity and Davis spent three years together in violence
After maintaining the relationship for six months, Davis began forcing Felicity to record in detail the experiences of each day. Hundreds of pages of handwritten diaries from 2012 to 2015 detail his appalling abuse and coercive control.
"He seems to be able to get into my head and know everything about me." Felicity explains.
According to the diary, Felicity was often whipped, sometimes to the point of fainting, and was repeatedly beaten in the head, slapped and strangled to the neck until she suffocated.
Her body was also bound many times. He locked Felicity's ankles to the dining table and often punished her in cages, "the longest time I was locked up for three whole days."
Felicity kept a detailed diary during her relationship with Davis
Wear collars, tattoos, each with their own "slave number"
In addition to the physical abuse of Felicity in private, Davis wanted to show his control and ownership of her.
Davis asked Felicity to wear a stainless steel collar and asked her to give her the "slave number" specifically assigned to her. They wrote a large, thick black letter along the panty line on the inside of Felicity's thigh, along with eight or nine numbers. The tattoo is conspicuous and difficult to cover.
Years later, Felicity decided to remove her "slave" tattoos
Davis tried to control Felicity's life in every way. He would specify what she was wearing, when to eat, and when to go to the bathroom. He would monitor who she was talking to and control the family's finances. He also taught her how to become a sex worker.
"I remember I dressed up and went over with him, and then he threw me down. Since then, I've been a sex worker, and that's it. He just took me in and told me where to go to work. ”
She gave Davis all the money she earned.
Felicity with James Davis
Felicity's parents did not know how badly she had been abused, but at one point they were so worried that they even discussed "kidnapping" her. Her mother, Diane, went around asking for help, but it was very difficult because Felicity was an adult and she had been brainwashed for so long that she did not ask for help.
Felicity made several unsuccessful attempts to end the relationship, and it wasn't until 2015, when she saw his sex photos with other women and even with girls who were only fifteen or sixteen years old, from Davis's iPad that she finally made up her mind to leave. "When I offered to leave... He beat me to death. I was locked in my room for up to 12 hours."
For the next eight months, she was homeless.
"I feel like he's everywhere. I knew that in his eyes, in that moment, I was his private property and that he would kill me. She said.
Build websites, attend sex parties, and target underage girls
Long before Felicity escaped from his control, Davis had begun looking around for more "prey." He built a website to establish himself as the "master" and fetish photographer of BDSM. He often attended BDSM sex parties in Sydney and was eventually banned from attending due to complaints from multiple women about assaulting others' bodies.
He also offered to introduce young girls to modeling, even targeting teenage girls, "who would lure them directly at parties."
In 2015, Davis met a 10th grader in Sydney through a fetish website. According to a video she posted online, when she was 16, Davis offered to take nude photos of her, and the two began dating. Before her 17th birthday, she was also assigned an exclusive "slave number" like Felicity and began wearing a collar as a sign of Davis's ownership of her. Davis also boasted of attending the girl's high school speech party and uploaded photos of her going to the school's official event.
Both "slaves" wore stainless steel collars symbolizing Davis' ownership
The girl later became a sex worker like other "slaves". Davis's online ads highlighted her as a "teenage girl" and "a school student."
Davis has written numerous articles online, especially on fetish websites, dozens of lengthy posts about how he "mentally conditioned" slaves to make them 100 percent dependent on themselves. He wrote about how to find "women who were willing to be slaves, willing to suffer abuse and Stockholm syndrome-like trauma," and introduced a "death contract" that said that the "ownership" of a "slave" could be transferred to other men after the death of the "master."
Rick Ross, an American cult researcher who has worked for decades to help cult victims, considers the group Davis runs to be an authoritarian and destructive cult.
Wear steel rings to the "slaves"
Davis claimed that his arrangement of "slaves" was consensual, and Rick Ross said it was "a complete distortion of the facts." He said that cults have three main characteristics: "First, they have a leader who is the object of worship and has all the power, and he is the spiritual ruler of all the members of the organization; second, there is a process of ideological indoctrination with the purpose of having a negative impact on the members of the organization; and the third characteristic is that the leader of the cult uses this negative influence to exploit and harm the members of the organization, and even endanger the whole society." Davis and his organization meet the characteristics of the cult organization described above.
Ross said that people who fall into the cult are rarely aware of the extent of their control, and it is difficult for women who are caught in the clutches of the devil to judge the real situation they are in, "which is terrible."
Fake wedding, real wealth, a man and many women living in a "slave house"
By 2018, Davis was living with four women and treating them like slaves. For ease of control, he moved them from Sydney to a villa on the outskirts of Armidale, New South Wales, hundreds of kilometres from their family and friends.
Davis poses with the women he calls "slaves" outside their villa in Armidale
"Cult leaders use various means to control them, such as social distancing, controlling communications, cutting off contact with family and friends, and controlling their time, all the time, day after day." Ross explained.
Davis revealed on social media that he demanded unconditional obedience from the women, calling him "master," keeping a daily diary and asking permission to even eat and go to the toilet.
To tighten his grip, Davis even organized a number of elaborate fake weddings, and by "marrying" him, constantly instilled in these women the idea that they must be completely subordinate to him.
Davis has a fake wedding with his "slaves"
At the end of 2018, Davis recruited another 17-year-old female high school student. She is from Sydney and has a history of mental illness. The day after the girl was discharged from the hospital, Davis took her directly to Armidale, despite her family's wishes. In 2019, the girl began to appear on Davis's social media, and netizens can "try it first and buy later." Yes, the teenage girl, who had just turned 18, like other women who lived with Davis, was treated as a sex worker and was constantly traveling to Sydney and other states for sex work. Later, she also appeared in incest-themed sex videos sold online by Davis.
A teenage girl who lives with Davis
Professor Felicity Guelle, a criminal lawyer who specializes in sexual abuse and human trafficking cases, said modern slavery encompassed many forms of exploitation, including slavery. "If there are women who enter into a relationship with someone else through contracts and then quickly develop into some form of sex work, there is likely to be enough evidence to support allegations of slavery, human trafficking and various types of coercion," she said. No one wants to be a slave or willing to be sold. Some people may not know they have been trafficked, or they may be deceived and trafficked. They may unknowingly live in this situation for a long time. ”
Davis used social media to promote on a site that required a subscription, posting videos containing sex and extreme violence between women and others he lived with.
Sex work advocate Lucy Price saw some of the videos and more unshareed image content and saw the women being violently beaten and their heads as if they were broken. She trembled and said, "I've been in this business for a long time. I've seen a lot, but I've never seen anything like this. It was so terrible, I didn't dare to think about those things! Even in the movies, I have never seen a grown man hit someone so hard, let alone a young girl with whom he had sex. It's outrageous. ”
Worship the leader of the cult
Price was so worried that she sent a message to a woman who lived at Villa Armidale. She said she saw a disturbing video of Davis constantly punching a woman in the face. The woman replied that everything they did was voluntary, and that "we guarantee that everyone is willing, passionate, and willing."
An iron cage for sex slaves
This reply shocked Price. "Absolutely impossible, no one will agree," she said. ”
Sex slaves were tied to a shelf by the cult leader and fixed
Engage in training, "sharing" with "pyramid" style expansion of cult organizations
According to disclosures, there are many people who share the same smell as Davis, and Davis is training them to teach them how to "conquer" women.
Ross said: "Davis is trying to organize and build a power structure and organization that looks like a pyramid, and he himself is at the top of the power. He trained these people to see themselves as mentors and leaders. ”
Joshua Clinch was a close friend and right-hand man to Davis. He claimed on social media that he had been mentored by Davis and boasted that he was planning to build his own "slave house."
Joshua Clinch
He said: "The last time I met Jimmy [Davis] he told me that his mentoring to me was coming to an end and I was very proud. He thought I could already develop my own branch, and he believed that the guidance to me was complete. We are considering expanding a new villa in Sydney. ”
Tiffany (not her real name), an 18-year-old girl from Sydney, is Clinch's "prey". Like many people targeted by Davis and his followers, Tiffany and his followers are vulnerable and suffering psychologically.
They follow each other on social media, chat, and then meet at the bar. Tiffany was soon indoctrinated by Clinch with bdsm sex parties, drugs, alcohol, violence, and eventually signed a pact to become Joshua Klinch's "submissive."
Tiffany wanted to leave, but was in a dilemma and could not do anything: "If I leave, the consequences will be very serious." They knew my family and they would blackmail me. ”
Tiffany was forced to endure increasingly severe sexual violence and was even injured at a sex party at Davis' Armidale Villa. "They got several girls, and they were participating for the first time," she recalled. James (Davis) forces them to perform oral sex with him. They...... Also hit people. Everybody was drunk, drunk. Tiffany's kidneys were severely hit, causing blood to urinate for several days, but even then they couldn't say "no", couldn't stop, "because here they all have the final say", and even had to endure saying "I'm fine".
Tiffany also acts as a "crew member" at other sex parties. On one occasion, she was chained around her neck and led to one of Davis's sex slaves to help blindfold a woman who was said to have gone into shock.
James Davis and other men with whom they "conquer" women
At that event, women were numbered with black markers, blindfolded, and taken to a room full of men. "They're going to get a bunch of women... About 10 or so... Then about 20 men, all of whom were James's friends," Tiffany said, "and they didn't have names, and they greeted the women with numbers." They obviously don't know anyone and don't know if protective measures have been taken..."
As requested, Tiffany also quit her job to work full-time as a sex worker. Clinch would keep the money she earned from sex work in a safe and would have to apply if it was to be used.
Stockpiling weapons, relocating locations, and recklessly ignoring legal sanctions
Earlier this year, Davis moved with his six sex buddies to a more remote village outside Armidale. He said publicly that he was planning to have children with all the women. He shared photos of the women with farm animals online, as well as photos of one of the youngest girls aiming with a rifle.
A teenage girl living with James Davis is taking aim with a rifle
Ross said: "When a cult leader starts collecting and stockpiling weapons, what does he want to do? Is he going to arm his followers and retaliate without fear? "It's an ominous sign. Davis actually had the power to kill these women. He had made them mentally broken, without their own will, and everything was subordinate to Him. So, any crazy behavior he does will eventually pass on to them. ”
However, Davis is not afraid of being punished by the law. He posted a video on social media saying: "We didn't break the law. A lot of people probably don't like what we do. People may think that by their moral code, what we do is wrong or immoral, but we are not breaking the law. So, go to the police, do as you please. ”
Davis's "slaves" were living in a remote village
Ross said that to stop the cult, the victims must publicly stand up for disclosure, "through public disclosure, it may make the relevant departments aware of the situation."
Some of the women lived in country chalets. Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police
Over the years, Australian state and federal authorities have received numerous reports about Davis.
Police found multiple village chalets. Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police
Paula Hudson, the inspector of criminal investigations at the Federal Police, said a major challenge faced by police when investigating and prosecuting human trafficking and slavery crimes is that victims often don't realize they are being trafficked and enslaved at the time, and "we can't prosecute without victims."
"We call on the Australian community to come forward. Potential victims, eyewitnesses and anyone affected by human trafficking and slavery, be brave enough to stand up and give clues to the federal police. ”
James Davis asked a professional photographer to photograph him and the slaves
Felicity is still struggling in agony, and she wants to see Davis brought to justice. "He's not a Terminator, he's not God, he can't do all this to women and get away with it." "I think speaking out about my experiences may help girls in similar situations escape the clutches of the devil."
In early March 2021, Davis took the youngest girl to a hardware store where police arrested him.
Federal police raided Davis' residence. Courtesy of the Australian Federal Police
Police charged Davis with enslavement between 2013 and 2015. Inspector Hudson appealed to the local population: "Watch your community, neighbors, and backyards to see if there are any signs of human trafficking and slavery." Such crimes tend to be more covert and less easily detected. If you are a victim, or know who the victim is, please contact the Federal Police by phone or email. ”
Davis did not apply for bail after his arrest.
Source: Chinese anti-cult