Scientology no place for your daughter, Katie Holmes told

The estranged niece of the head of the Church of Scientology has warned Katie Holmes that the organisation is "no place for an innocent child" like her daughter Suri.

Jenna Miscavige Hill, 28, whose uncle is church leader David Miscavige, became the latest former member to condemn the group, which is supported by Holmes's estranged husband Tom Cruise. She left in 2005 after receiving what she called a "lousy education from unqualified teachers, forced labour, long hours, forced confessions and mental anguish".

Miscavige Hill said Holmes would need fortitude to take on the church, which had "experts in twisting the truth and intimidation tactics".

Cruise, 50, and Holmes, 33, have now cut off all direct contact with each other following her decision to file for divorce, and custody of Suri, in New York on June 28. They married in 2006 and Miscavige was Cruise's best man. The couple are now communicating only through legal teams. Cruise, Hollywood's most bankable star, has hired the high- profile celebrity divorce lawyer Dennis Wasser, who also handled his split from Nicole Kidman in 2001.

Leaks from inside both camps say relations between Cruise and Holmes have now become "very bitter".

According to People magazine, Holmes switched mobile telephones and email accounts to break with her old life.

After being blindsided by the divorce filing, Cruise's team appeared to begin a fightback with sources close to the star suggesting he felt "betrayed", saying that his wife was using Suri as a "weapon" in the divorce, and that those around her were making it difficult for him to see his daughter.

Holmes appeared to have been secretly planning the divorce for some time.

She may have hinted at it in an interview conducted six weeks ago, which is due to be published in Elle magazine on July 17. She deflected questions about her husband and told the interviewer, "I'm starting to come into my own. I know who I am, and where I am, and where I want to go, so I want to focus on that." Cruise, who was filming in Iceland when the divorce papers were filed, had planned to spend his 50th birthday on Tuesday in New York with his wife and daughter. Instead, he flew to Los Angeles and spent it with his adopted children Bella, 19, and Connor, 17.

Meanwhile, the Church of Scientology, which has always fiercely guarded its public image, faced a flurry of further potentially damaging claims, including reports that members of Miscavige's family had left its base in California in recent months. There was also renewed interest in the whereabouts of his wife Shelly with an anti-Scientology group claiming she was missing. But the church issued a statement saying she was "not missing" and the claim was "utterly ridiculous and unfounded".

If she was raised a Scientologist, Suri would face being "audited" with an "e-meter," which measures responses to questions such as "Have you ever lied to a teacher?" and "Have you ever gotten yourself dirty on purpose?"

She could also face joining the subgroup Sea Org, in which the most dedicated Scientologists sign a billion-year pledge of allegiance and wear maritime-style uniforms.

Holmes, who was raised a Roman Catholic, is now believed to have enrolled her daughter in a Catholic school on the US east coast.

The church has dismissed critical former members as "excommunicated self-promoters" who "cannot be believed".