Editing Disconnection (Scientology) (section)

===The 1980s and 1990s===
In 1982, [[David Mayo (Scientology)|David Mayo]] and other former Church of Scientology executives were subjected to an internal "Committee of Evidence" for alleged transgressions. The committee issued a permanent writ of Disconnection, forbidding all other Scientologists from having contact with the accused.{{r|atack|page=306}}

In ''[[A Piece of Blue Sky]]'', [[Jon Atack]] describes being ordered to disconnect from a friend in 1983, shortly after the policy was re-introduced.{{r|atack|page=35}}

In his 1984 High Court judgment, which considered many aspects of Scientology, English judge [[John Latey (judge)|Justice Latey]] wrote that "many examples [of disconnection] have been given and proved in evidence." As examples, he reproduced two disconnection letters. One is written by a Scientologist to his fiancée. In the other, a man writes to his business partner and former friend, "What you are now doing in setting yourself against the Church is not only very suppressive but also non-survival for you, your family and any group you are associated with."<ref>Judgement of Mr Justice Latey, Re: B & G (Minors) (Custody) Delivered in the High Court
(Family Division), London, 23 July 1984</ref><ref name="sinister"/>

That year, the ''Daily Mail'' brought up further examples of disconnection, including a 13-year-old boy who disconnected from his father and a woman who said her fiancé was forced to abandon her. The fiancé concerned said "it was a personal decision" and a [[Church of Scientology]] spokesman was quoted denying that there is a policy to split up relationships.<ref name="sheridan">{{cite news |title = We disconnect you | first= Peter|last=Sheridan |work = [[Daily Mail]] |date = 11 February 1984}}</ref>

Also in 1984, ''[[The Mail on Sunday]]'' interviewed Gulliver Smithers, a former Scientologist who had left the group's base at [[Saint Hill Manor]] when he was 14 years old. Smithers explained that disconnection was an everyday part of life in Saint Hill, "It goes round by word of mouth when someone is an outcast. He or she is just ignored and shunned. It was what we were brought up to do."<ref>{{cite news |title = Hubbard Youth: The teenage bullies who reign supreme over a sinister cult | newspaper = Mail on Sunday |date = 29 July 1984}}</ref>

In a lengthy court case in the 1980s, ex-member [[Lawrence Wollersheim]] successfully argued that he had been coerced into disconnecting from his wife, parents, and other family members. Since the disconnection was not voluntary, it did not count as protected religious practice.<ref name="wollersheim_case">California appellate court, 2nd district, 7th division, Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, Civ. No. B023193 Cal. Super. (1986)</ref>

In 1995, the UK local paper ''Kent Today'' talked to Pauline Day, whose Scientologist daughter Helen had sent a disconnection letter and then dropped all contact, even changing her phone number. A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology denied that this decision had anything to do with the Church.<ref>{{cite news |title = Talk To Me, Plea By Cult Girl's Mum | first= Clare|last= Jardine |work = Kent Today |date = 20 May 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title = Our Little Boy Lost: Grandparents in Legal Battle for the right to see two-year-old Sam | work = [[Daily Mail]] |date = 29 May 1995}}</ref>