Last week, we wrote about Valeska Paris, the Swiss-born Australian woman who says that from 1996 to 2007, she was held against her will on Scientology's private cruise ship, the Freewinds.
She says that Scientology leader David Miscavige moved her to the ship in 1996 when she was 18 in order to keep her away from her own mother, who had sued Scientology and denounced it on French television. For the first six years of her time on the ship, Valeska says she was unable to leave it without an escort.
Scientology denies that Valeska was held against her will, and now it has had its attorneys in Sydney send her a threatening letter.
"You should seek legal advice in relation to our client's rights to take legal action again [sic] you," states the letter, from the Sydney firm Kennedys.
Valeska tells me she plans to continue speaking out and will not be deterred by the letter.
"It's just a scare tactic," she says.
As we wrote earlier, Valeska signed confidentiality agreements with Scientology -- one while she was on the Freewinds, another in Australia as she was leaving the Sea Org in 2009.
Valeska has said that because her story involves church leader David Miscavige, she doesn't think he would risk suing her for speaking out since he would almost certainly be required to become a witness and be deposed.
In the letter, at least, Scientology's attorneys do their best to sound outraged that she would speak out: "Your conduct in speaking to the media was a direct and blatant breach of your confidentiality agreement with our client."
Well, in upcoming days we'll see if they intend more than just a shot across her bow.
In the meantime, I have been speaking to Valeska at length, getting more details about her time on the Freewinds. I've learned interesting new details, and cleared up other things that our readers had questions about.
On Sunday, we wrote about the 1995 marriage of Ramana Dienes-Browning, a 16-year-old member of Scientology's Sea Org, who was wed aboard the church's private cruise ship, the Freewinds.
Ramana told us that she felt somewhat pressured to marry at 16. It was the only way to move out of the girls' dormitory on the ship into a better room. The 25-year-old man who wanted to marry her, meanwhile, was favored among executives, and they wanted to see him happy. So she went through with it, and then realized she wasn't at all prepared for married life. Before long, her husband was away for long periods before the marriage fell apart.
Now we have learned that three years after Ramana's wedding, on May 9, 1998, that same dress was worn by Valeska Paris.
She married a Sea Org member from Italy named Roberto Toppi who she genuinely had affection for. But like Ramana's match, Valeska says in the Sea Org a fulfilling marriage was difficult to obtain.
"It was kind of crap. We married in May. After Maiden Voyage [a celebration that occurs in June and July aboard the ship] he was gone 6 to 8 months," Valeska says. "I actually loved the guy, and I was really upset."
None of her family had come out for the wedding. Toppi's family came out for a visit at one point, but none of them spoke English. "I went out on an afternoon with them, and ate dinner at their hotel one day," she says. Toppi was present for that trip, but otherwise he was almost never around.
After he returned from his initial 6 to 8 month assignment, he was at the ship for about 6 months. "But then he was made a registrar, and he was off the ship pretty much the whole time," Valeska says. "In our seven year marriage, we spent 9 or 10 months together." They divorced in 2005.
Last week, after Yahoo News linked to our lengthy interview with Valeska, Yahoo writer Eric Pfeiffer received a statement from the church trashing our story.
In part, it reads: "She left the Freewinds hundreds of times to go shopping, for outings with her husband on islands such as St. Kitts, Aruba, St. Barts and Curaao, as well as for numerous other reasons."
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