Katie Holmes turns to her security chief, who is leading her new team of five highly trained bodyguards, and asks the same question she’s already asked three times that morning: “Are they still out there?”

It’s no wonder Katie is frightened. The New York apartment she holed up in after filing for divorce from Tom Cruise was supposed to be her haven. But now it’s being staked out by two mysterious burly men inside SUVs with darkened windows. The men wear permanent scowls and each has an earpiece in one ear and a mobile phone pressed to the other.

Some reports suggest they’re armed. The licence plates are from Tennessee, the home of a Scientology base and “celebrity centre”. At first glance outsiders might find it hard to take Scientology – with its stories of ancient alien wars and bizarre sci-fi babble language – seriously. But those who have crossed the church in the past can understand only too well why Katie, 33, is terrified of being stalked, kidnapped and perhaps even worse.

A former Scientologist, who played a leading role in the church for almost 10 years before leaving 18 months ago, agreed to speak to Woman’s Day on condition of anonymity. “Katie has never been liked or trusted by the top tier of Scientology leadership,” she explains. “But now she’s enemy number one as far as they’re concerned. She has been downgraded to a minus 40 on the ‘tone scale’ – that’s the lowest value that a person’s soul can be given. Lower than a person who has died or even a paedophile. I am scared for what they might do to Katie.”

Read more about Katie's fears as well as Tom's fighting words in this week's Woman’s Day on sale Monday July 9, 2012.