06 .09 . 15 / 3

booking site, said the 1930ssemi, a mile from Twick-enham, would comfortablyhouse six rugby fans.“Wejust thoughtwe’dgive it

a go. If you are paying £120 anight per person to stay in abeautiful home with en-suiteand all the home comforts . . .we think that’s reasonable,”said the owner, who asked tobe identified only as John.NicolaSheppard,30,has five

bookings over eight nights, at£150 per night, for her spareroom in Cardiff, a 10-minutewalk from theMillenniumsta-dium. “I’m happy to makesomemoneytopayoffmyhugecredit card bill as the result ofbuying tickets to World Cupgamesmyself,” said Sheppard.Rob Ellis, 33, is offering a

double room for £40 per night

in his five-bedroom home inGloucester, where four groupmatches will be played at theKingsholm stadium. “We’ll beputting the teams’ bunting upand things like that, to makethem feel at home,” he said.Halfamillionfansfrommore

than 80 countries are expectedin England and Wales duringthe six-week tournament butsome hotels and B&Bs havebeen accused of cashing in.The Twickenham Guest

House, 540yards from the sta-dium, is charging £244 for adouble roomon September 26,the day England’s play Wales.The same roomwould cost£75inNovember, after the tourna-ment. Sunil George, the man-ager, said the ratewas cheaperthan some hotels in the area.TheHoliday Inn off junction

32 of the M4, near Cardiff, hasupped itsprice to£499onSep-tember 19, when Ireland takeon Canada at the Millenniumstadium. A double room costs£89 in November. ManagerLaura Wiltshire said: “Like theairline industry, hotel pricesfluctuate and room rates varydue to supply and demand.”Airbnb takes a 6-12%cut on

eachbooking.Propertiesbeingoffered to rugby fans include afour-bedroom family home inWhitton, near Twickenham,for £6,057 a month and for atouchofluxurythereisathree-bedroom home on the RiverThames near Staines, for£10,624 amonth. The owners,BillandAngieJenkins,willstayontheir40ftboat,mooredout-side, when the guestsmove in.

@markhookham

IT IS thebirthplaceof thesingerPhil Collins and the Carry Onactor Charles Hawtrey and islocated conveniently, if rathernoisily, close toHeathrow.Yet despite Hounslow’s

charms, few householderswould have dared to hopeanyone would pay £750(€1,000) a night to stay in athree-bedroomproperty there—until thearrival of theRugbyWorld Cup.The area’s proximity to

Twickenham, the stadiumwhere 10 matches will beplayed, has led to residentsoffering their homes for rent.The owner of the Hounslow

property advertised at £750 anight on Airbnb, the internet

Mark Hookham andDaisy Collingwood

Scrum down in a €1,000-a-nighthouse close to Twickenham

THREE-BED RIVERSIDE HOME IN STAINES

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The Sunday Times maderepeated interview requests toKeppler through the AmericanSchool of Natural Health inClearwater, Florida. Anemployee, who identifiedhimself only as “Tom Z”, saidKeppler was on holiday.In an email, the employee

said: “Please note that CNMIreland follows a strict policy,which is that religious beliefs

do not influence teaching. Thisincludes the religious beliefs ofMr Keppler.“CNM is an educational

institution that providestraining programmes in alter-nativemedicine.Thecontentoftheseprogramsisscientificandhas no religious affiliation.“There are many schools

and collegeswho provide sim-ilarprogrammes.Kepplerisnot

BAI offersFrontlinereportapology

John Burns

THE BroadcastingAuthority of Ireland hasapologised to RobMorrison, a former head ofnews and current affairs atUTV, over a statement itissued in November 2012.Morrisonwas an

independentmember ofa review team thatinvestigated the RTEFrontline debate amongpresidential candidates in2011, duringwhich a faketweet was put toindependent candidateSeán Gallagher.The team issued a report

that criticised RTE foreditorial failings. However,in November 2012, the BAIasked RTE to release the“working document” onwhich the report wasbased, on the basis that itprovided additionalinsights into those failings.Morrison sued the BAI,

saying it was implying hisreport had deliberatelyomitted, withheld orsuppressed information,or otherwise co-operatedwith RTE to cover updamaging findings.In a statement on its

website, the BAI said itnever believed this to becase and apologised toMorrison for its statement.“The BAI is happy tomake clear we believe hecarried out an excellent,in-depth and consideredexamination of theprogramme,” it said.The authority also

pointed out that “given thethroughness” of Morrison’sinvestigation, it had notconsidered it necessary tocarry out a statutoryinvestigation of theprogramme.When his report was

released, Morrison said itwas a faithful summary oftheworking document,which, to protect theanonymity of peopleinterviewed, could not bepublished.

a lecturer in Ireland, and hasnever taught in Ireland.”Davison did not respond to

requests for comment onwhether she was aware thatKeppler was a Scientologist orwhether shebelievedhis viewsinfluenced the education shereceived at the college.The director of studies at

CNMIrelanddidnotrespondtoan interview request.

ments were criticised by dieti-cians, doctors and ArthritisIreland. Davison subsequentlysaid some commentators hadaccused her of saying glutenwas “responsible for autism,schizophrenia and arthritis;that is absolutelynot thecase”.CNMwas set up in theUK in

1998 by Hermann Keppler,who then established collegesin Ireland, America, Canadaand South Africa. He owns80% of CNM’s operations inIreland, which include bran-ches in Dublin, Cork andGalway,accordingtotheCom-panies Registration Office.Internal records of course

completions at the Church ofScientology have been pub-lished online byAnonymous, ahacking collective that hasprotested against the churchworldwide, and held demon-strations outside its Dublinmission.TheserecordsindicateKeppler has spent years pro-gressing up the ranks of thechurch,whichwas founded byscience fiction writer L RonHubbard in the 1950s.A separate internal docu-

ment disseminated by thechurch shows an image ofKeppler with his arm around a

womanwhowas campaigningfor a Scientologymedia centre.According to Tony Ortega, a

former editor of The VillageVoice in New York who runs awebsiteonScientologyentitledThe Underground Bunker,“with the completions data-base and that recent advertise-ment, we can say that, at aminimum, Keppler has been avery involved Scientologistsince at least 1994”.Keppler is an advocate of

fasting and detoxing usingsalts. He believes “each singlemineral in Himalayan salt is acrystal with its own frequencyand electromagnetic field”,according to a 2013 interviewwithHomeopathy 4 Everyone,which claims to be the world’sleading homeopathy journal.In that interview, Keppler

said Parkinson’s disease iscaused by “a toxic environ-ment”, such as the presence of“heavy metals”, and recom-mends that patients stay awayfrom vaccines and consumespirulina powder, vitamin Cand niacin instead.“Drugs, especially psychi-

atric drugs, can have tremen-douslyadversesideeffects,”hesaid. “There are statistics

which show that more than60% of diseases are caused bydrugs; that each fourth patientin America is delivered to ahospital because of the sideeffect of drugs, and that eachfourth patient in America diesbecause of the side-effects ofdrugs.”Anonymous suggests some

students at CNM have beeninfluenced by Keppler’sinvolvement in Scientology.Its forum received the fol-

lowing post in 2009: “I was astudent at the College of Natu-ropathic Medicine in Cork cityand I had to quit when, at theend of my first year, I discov-ered the founder of the collegeis a Scientologist. His name isHermann and he gave theteachers a video made by thechurchtoshowtoallof thestu-dents . . . an anti-psychiatryvideo, full of propaganda, liesand manipulation of statistics.Shockingly, most of the stu-dents inmy class did not ques-tion thecontentof the film,butaccepted it as fact.”

THE College of NaturopathicMedicine, where RosannaDavison studied nutritionaltherapy, is part of aworldwidenetworkofcollegesownedbyatop-level Scientologist whoopposes the use of prescriptiondrugs and vaccinations.Davison, a former Miss

World and daughter of singersongwriter Chris de Burgh, isusingherqualificationfromthecollege, known as CNM, tocarve out a career in naturo-pathic nutrition. This is basedaround the concept that foodcanbeusedasmedicine topre-vent and even treat illness.Her cookbook, Eat Yourself

Beautiful, debuted at No 1 onthe bestseller list for hardbacknon-fiction last week in Ire-land. According to NielsenBookScan, which capturesabout 80% of sales, Davison’sself-help manual sold 434copies.In a newspaper interview to

promote the book last month,the veganmodelwas quoted assaying her husband’s symp-toms of rheumatoid arthritiscleared up after removinggluten from his diet. The com-

Gabrielle Monaghan

THREE-BED SEMI IN HOUNSLOW

€1,000PER NIGHT

€8,200PER MONTH

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Scientologistcontrolscollege fornaturopaths

College of Naturopathic Medicine, above; Scientologist Keppler, inset; and Davison, right

BRYAN MEADE