David Miscavige’s niece claims she has beeen harassed by the Church of Scientology

The niece of a Church of Scientology leader alleges she has been harassed since speaking out against the religion.

Jenna Hill Miscavige, the daughter of official David Miscavige's older brother Ron, recently came out in support of the controversial Andrew Morton book, "Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography".

It contains a string of lurid allegations against the star and his religion - which have been denied by the Top Gun star's lawyers.

And she slammed Cruise himself for "supporting a religion that tears apart families, both in the media and monetarily", according to the New York Post.

Since then, the 24-year-old claims she's been subjected to harassment.

Jenna, who lives in San Diego, said: "The church has contacted several of my friends, telling them that I am smearing the church and I am going to be declared a suppressive person and asking my friends if they would disconnect from me and, in at least one case, insisting that they do."

She added: "At least eight friends have removed themselves from my MySpace page."

She first spoke out against Scientology last month when she posted an open letter to a senior sect official, later posted on the Internet, praising the Morton book and slamming the church.

Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw responded then: "I am absolutely shocked at how vehemently you insist upon not only denying the truths that have been stated about the church in that biography, but then take it a step further and tell outright lies."

Jenna says her mother and father left Scientology in 2000, but she stayed in until 2005, during which time she says she was kept in a boarding school, only allowed to see her parents once a year and subjected to a bizarre daily regimen.

She told former New York Post reporter Philip Recchia: "If you flunked your uniform inspection, sometimes if you were late . . . you would be dumped with a five-gallon bucket of ice water."

The newspaper reports: "We were also required to write down all transgressions . . . similar to a sin in the Catholic religion.

"After writing them all down, we would receive a meter check on the Electropsychometer to make sure we weren't hiding anything, and you would have to keep writing until you came up clean. This is from the age of five until I was 12-years-old."

A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology was unavailable for comment.

By Owen Williams, Feb 06 2008 © Copyright 2008 - Showbiz Spy