Standing in five acres of carefully manicured lawns on the outskirts of the Cheshire town of Crewe, Webb House is an imposing building.

With its central clock tower, structurally it remains much as it was when it first opened its doors in 1912, as an orphanage for the children of workers employed by the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) who had lost one or both parents due to an accident at work.

But if the facade of the Grade II-listed property remains much as it was a century ago, that is where the similarity ends.

For, as dramatic footage of police vehicles filing through the gates this week demonstrates, Webb House has undergone quite a transformation since Francis William Webb, an engineer who designed and built locomotives for the LNWR, died in 1906, bequeathing £53,857 to build an orphanage.

Back in the day, up to 80 children were housed there: the boys would wear a uniform of black corduroy trousers and brown jerseys, and the girls heavy-knit blue dresses with blue or scarlet cloaks.

These days, the occupants still wear what can loosely be described as a uniform – predominantly head-to-toe black, with a preponderance of beanie hats.

And while aerial photographs of the site do indeed show a trampoline, multiple climbing frames, slides and a football pitch (along with a large outdoor gym), there are no orphans playing here.

Its purpose has changed significantly over the past 100 years or so – just how significantly is evidenced by the signs around the site, warning anyone approaching that there is CCTV in place and that the premises is under ‘constant surveillance’.

Drones are sometimes spotted flying across the lawns and there is video footage online of a ‘robodog’ patrolling the drive, its purpose – other than giving it all a distinctly dystopian vibe – unknown.

So just what, you may wonder, is happening at Webb House and who are its occupants, who, until this week, numbered around 150 adults and children?

Many of them could be seen protesting this week after a massive operation by Cheshire Police on Wednesday in which more than 500 officers from as far afield as Wales carried out raids on three addresses linked to a bizarre, but rapidly expanding, religious sect which has its headquarters there.

The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light (AROPL) has, for five years, run its global operations from the site.

This week, however, it emerged that ‘allegations of serious sexual offences, modern slavery and forced marriage’ had been made by one woman who’d spent time with the Ahmadi sect in 2023 and who went to police in March.

It led to the arrest of ten people – seven men and three women – of multiple nationalities, who were later bailed. Police, it should be said, stressed that their investigation was not into the religious group itself and there was ‘no risk to the wider community’.

The group describes itself as a religious community – although others see it as a cult – and is led by an American-born former documentary maker, stand-up comedian and self-proclaimed ‘saviour of mankind’ named Abdullah Hashem who was one of those arrested and bailed this week.

The alleged victim moved to the UK from her home country under ‘false pretences of a better life’ and joined AROPL, Chester Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

But after selling her home and giving up control of her finances and her travel documentation, she was subjected to sexual and physical abuse, the court heard.

But after being taken to Sweden by the group, she managed to raise the alarm while being brought back via Ireland, it was claimed, and police began investigating.

The victim, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claims to have been contacted by the group online, the court heard.

Members are claimed to have visited her in her home country, and in 2023 she is said to have agreed to sell her property and move to the UK. But after being brought to Webb House she was allegedly subjected to offences including forced marriage, rape and assault by penetration, prosecutor Catherine Elvin said.

The court heard she was allegedly forced to marry another member of the group and persuaded to sell her possessions and join the group.

Abdullah Hashem is a man known for his outlandish views, as the Daily Mail discovered this week: he believes Vladimir Putin is the reincarnation of ‘the evil emperor Julius Caesar’ and President Donald Trump ‘the most evil of them all, Emperor Nero’ – but these are probably among the most conservative of his teachings.

He also proselytises on the existence of a planet inhabited by giant, highly intelligent rabbits, and its theory that George Bush Snr was either possessed by a ‘jinn’ – supernatural creatures in Arabian theology and Islam – or actually a shapeshifting alien, and that Covid was a punishment from God.

Inevitably, however, questions are being asked about the organisation that operates behind the heavily guarded gates, where more than 50 children were being home-schooled and whose welfare is now the priority of designated welfare centres set up to look after them.

So just what is AROPL, and how did this bizarre group with a vast global online following end up in a former orphanage in Crewe?

The movement itself says it’s a peaceful body, derived from Shia Islam, the second largest branch of Islam, and that its followers have been persecuted around the world due to its belief in equality and human rights.

Among its many and varied claims, AROPL believes that 99 per cent of every religion is wrong – including Islam. According to charity the Religion Media Centre, it views itself as the true Islam and universal religion, claiming that the Quran has been corrupted.

Rather than praying five times a day, members have no obligatory prayers; they celebrate Ramadan in December; headscarves are not obligatory for women; and while homosexuality is not encouraged, the group accepts gay people.

They’re also big fans of large fireworks displays, according to locals and are often seen shopping at Tesco in their all-black outfits. Not, some might think, so bizarre.

But there are other more eyebrow-raising teachings, along with conspiracy theories about the ‘illuminati’ (the shadowy elite alleged to be secretly running the world) and aliens secretly controlling US presidents.

And at its core is a religious creed based on (AROPL’s own words) ‘fulfilment of prophecy as per the narrations and scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths’.

Broadly speaking, according to Islamic belief, a messianic figure known as the Mahdi will appear before Judgment Day to vanquish injustice and tyranny, and usher in an era of peace across the world before the apocalypse.

Who is that man? Abdullah Hashem, who founded AROPL in 2015, having first sprung to public attention in 2008 for an undercover documentary about a Swiss-based UFO religion – made, it should be said, with the same childhood friend, Joseph McGowen, who remains at his side within AROPL today.

Hashem claims to be not only the successor of Jesus Christ and Mohammed, but also the ‘true and legitimate pope’.

Indeed, such are their convictions that a group of followers were photographed at the Vatican last May, shortly after the death of Pope Francis; they were holding a large banner with an image of Hashem and the words ‘The New Pope’, along with the declaration ‘no need for Cardinals to vote, God has already chosen’.

Bizarre indeed, although like the actual new Pope Leo XIV, Hashem does hail from the US. He and McGowen graduated from Mooresville High School, Indiana, in 2001. Back then they both dabbled in stand-up comedy. ‘We’d like to have a sitcom sort of like Seinfeld. He’s one of my inspirations,’ Hashem told his local newspaper.

Hashem went on to Purdue University, emerging with a BA in comparative religious studies, during which time he also became an avid filmmaker.

First he and McGowen infiltrated the Rael cult, the aforementioned movement based on a belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, then they expanded into other targets, growing a huge online following. ‘We’re really building up our reputation for debunking the falseprophet, UFO phenomenon,’ Hashem was reported saying. ‘We are like CIA agents for God; we’re on the front lines and we have to do what’s necessary to expose these frauds.’

By 2008, Hashem was heading to Egypt where he claims to have risked his life to topple the country’s then leader, Hosni Mubarak, during the Arab Spring and embarked on the path that led him not just to his wife, whom he married in 2012 and with whom he has four children, but to form AROPL.

Since 2015, however, AROPL moved to Germany, amid alleged religious persecution in Egypt, then to Sweden, where there were a string of controversies relating to finances and residency status of members (69 members had their residency permits revoked) before winding up in Cheshire in 2021.

Again, it should be noted that however odd some of the sect’s teachings may seem, human rights organisations have said that AROPL members around the globe have experienced religious persecution in Islamic-majority countries where its beliefs are perceived as blasphemous by state and religious authorities.

In Cheshire, the orphanage had closed in 1961 and the building been derelict for some years. It had been up for auction with a guide price of £1million when AROPL moved in.

Who purchased the property? Unclear. What is clear is that the movement has considerable financial clout. One local remembers asking a member why they’d relocated to Crewe and got the reply: ‘The building was a steal.’

The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light is registered as a non-profit corporation in Las Vegas, where its latest accounts for 2024 show that it made $2million (about £1.4million) in revenue from donations and spent $1.4million on expenses; the public filing shows that it has $4.2million in assets.

Back in 2020 its donations stood at $328,000. Quite some growth.

The reasons for that growth may well be evident in its vast online following, managed via a slick social media operation.

On TikTok, the sect (also registered with the UK Charities Commission) has almost 100,000 followers and its videos attract up to 6.4million views. There are 88,600 subscribers on just one of multiple YouTube channels – ‘The Mahdi Has Appeared’ – along with more than 5,000 videos.

Some of the content is taken from gatherings in Crewe and often shows Hashem – beanie partially covering his eyes, grey beard and locks flowing – addressing dozens of similarly clad followers.

In one three-minute YouTube clip, viewed 8,600 times, from 2023, Hashem delivers a doomsday prediction in a deep, resounding voice. ‘I am inviting you to the seventh and final covenant between God and mankind. Accepting this covenant is the only thing that will save you from the punishment which is about to come down upon mankind.

‘Covid was only the beginning of that punishment. More plagues and diseases will be unearthed and unleashed upon you.

‘Viruses that were frozen and dormant for thousands of years will become live once again. Strange illnesses that were never seen before will fall down to the earth with comets and meteors.’

And so it continues.

The video is accompanied by a fundraising appeal headed ‘The Mahdi’s Manifesto. Now is the Time to Support The Mahdi’. Total raised so far? £14,000.

The movement has a holy book, written by Hashem, called The Goal of the Wise, which has a decidedly extraterrestrial theme: it includes descriptions of a planet called Al-Aroos, inhabited by bear-sized intelligent rabbits that walk on two legs and where humans are like animals.

Elsewhere, it describes ‘human-alien hybrids’, children born from sexual relations between extra-terrestrial visitors and humans.

In Cheshire, it’s not the teachings so much as the ominous, marching, black-clad, beanie-wearing presence that’s unnerved some locals, who’ve described their new neighbours as ‘secretive’ and ‘hostile’.

David Harper, 33, told the Daily Mail he attended a protest outside Webb House around six weeks ago because he was concerned it was harbouring a religious ‘cult’.

‘There’s CCTV everywhere, and if you go anywhere near the gate someone will come out, ask you what you’re doing and tell you you’re on private property,’ he said. ‘They also have drones flying around.’

Another man said the group would often throw all-day events when music and speeches would be booming out from 10am on Saturdays until late at night.

Initially, he said, members went around the area, giving out hampers as part of a charm offensive. They invited residents to enjoy burgers and gave away beanie hats. But the charm didn’t go far.

‘They’ve put in a football pitch with proper floodlights,’ said the resident. ‘They can be out in the garden, 100 of them and they’re chanting around a big statue with lights on it.’

Others are less concerned. One said: ‘They are very private and a bit secretive. But to be fair they don’t really bother people.’

A lawyer representing AROPL said: ‘Our client is not making any statement other than to say that it is cooperating with the investigation and is unable to comment at this point.’

But last year, Hashem did tell a local news website: ‘My long-term ambitions and goals are to see love and peace prosper, and to unite mankind.‘

Additional reporting: Tim Stewart and Ian Leonard.