Tiffinie Irwin, the Word of Life church leader who has been called a prophet by followers. Picture: Mark DiOrio/AP

Police allege what followed was no counselling session but twelve agonising hours of a brutal beatings where the boys were whipped, punched and kicked.

The inner-workings of the cult-like church have been exposed by the case and has shocked the community of New Hartford, in New York State, which has long had its collective suspicions about what really went on behind the church’s locked gates.

Nearby neighbours reported hearing loud chants at night and seeing mysterious figures in long black trench coats.

The death last October of Lucas Leonard had catapulted the church into the public arena along with a new awareness of the incredible power Irwin had over her followers.

Church members took 19-year-old Leonard to hospital the day after the beating but he couldn’t be saved. The official cause of his death was blunt force trauma. Christopher, 17, was less seriously injured and is now the star witness against Irwin and seven other co-accused — who include his own parents, Bruce and Deborah, the Daily Beast reports.

Irwin and her mother, Traci Irwin, 49, her brother Joseph Irwin; members David Morey, 26, and Linda Morey, 54; Bruce Leonard, 65, and Sarah Ferguson, 33, are facing charges including manslaughter, kidnapping, assault, and gang assault.

Lucas Leonard was allegedly beaten to death.Source:Supplied

Chrisopher Leonard tried to save his brother with CPR.Source:Supplied

Christopher Leonard has told of desperately trying to save his brother with CPR and of hearing him moaning after he collapsed to the ground after the beating.

In a preliminary court hearing, he claimed the assault went for a staggering 12 hours, and was disguised as a counselling session that was supposed to heal the boys of their sins.

Christopher said he was repeatedly punched, then whipped with a four-foot cord. The only part of his body that was spared was his head,

Court documents obtained by local media allege Irwin confronted the teenagers and accused them of having sexually abused minors, experimenting with witchcraft, using a voodoo doll to harm people and even plotting to kill their parents.

Prosecutors have suggested it was Lucas’s decision to leave the church which acted as the trigger to the assaults.

Investigators said there was no evidence to suggest any of claims were true — but that didn’t stop the church members.

The documents put Irwin front and centre of the alleged beating because the allegations were meant to incite an emotional response by enraging participants.

The Utica Observer-Dispatch reported the allegations made by Irwin were done “with the intent to enrage and infuriate” the co-accused “or under circumstances that rendered such emotional responses a reasonable possibility.”

The Word of Life Christian Church.Source:AFP

Deborah LeonardSource:AP

Lawyer Ben Hirshfield, left, stands with his client Joseph Irwin during an indictment hearing. Picture: Mark DiOrio/Observer-Dispatch via AP.Source:AAP

“It is further alleged that as a result of statements made during the counselling session by Lucas Leonard and Christopher Leonard; Bruce Leonard, Deborah Leonard and Sarah Ferguson struck Lucas Leonard numerous times with a power cord. It is further alleged that co-defendants also slapped, punched and kicked Lucas Leonard during the counselling session.”

The documents have also revealed the horrifying extent in which Lucas was injured, the Observer-Dispatch reported.

Prosecutors will allege Lucas’s attackers intentionally targeted his groin area to cause “serious and protracted disfigurement, protracted impairment of health or impairment of the function of any bodily organ.”

Christopher told the hearing he saw Lucas fall to the ground.

“I rushed over and saw he wasn’t breathing … Someone went up to find [Traci Irwin] — she was pressing on his chest while I tried to fill up his lungs.”

Sarah Ferguson, half-sister of Christopher and Lucas Leonard, appears in court for a preliminary hearing on a second-degree assault charge.Source:AP

Bruce Leonard (Tina Russell/Observer-Dispatch via AP, Pool)Source:AP

After his brother died, a police SWAT team stormed the church and made the arrests.

Most of the arrested church members have followed Irwin’s lead and so far resisted prosecution attempts at a plea deal — setting the scene for the allegations to be played out in the courtroom.

The exception to that is Deborah Leonard. She has pleaded guilty to reduced charges of first degree assault, reported CNY Central, and is expected to give evidence against her husband Bruce.

She admitted whipping both boys in the upper chest, but said Irwin, who she called a “prophet” had the power to end the beatings at any time.

If the pastor had said “stop,” the fatal beating would have stopped, Leonard said, according to CNY Central.

Those who lived close to the church told the Independent they couldn’t believe what had been alleged.

But just as shocking was the fact the secretive community was happening right under their noses.

“I’ve been here three years and I’ve seen them once. That was when they were mowing the grass,” one nearby resident said.

Which is probably just the way Irwin and her followers wanted it.