So. Baptist Convention Not Getting it on Child Sex Abuse

Advocates fault new SBC president’s record on

child sex abuse

BOB ALLEN

Advocates for survivors of clergy sex abuse say they are

disappointed the Southern Baptist Convention has elected

a new president once accused of shielding a child molester

“We’re disappointed that the Southern Baptist Convention just elected Bellevue Baptist pastor Steve Gaines as president,” said David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “He covered up abuse by minister Paul Williams for at least six months.”

And it appears he 'uncovered' the abuse only because it began to show up on social media.

Newly elected SBC president Steve Gaines

Gaines, elected by acclamation June 15 as president of the nation’s largest faith group behind Roman Catholics, nearly lost his pulpit 10 years ago for not telling his church that a longtime staff member had confessed in counseling to sexually abusing a family member 17 years earlier.

Gaines kept the secret for six months until details of the incident appeared in a blog.

Bellevue Baptist Church fired Paul Williams, minister of prayer and special projects who served at the church 34 years, in January 2007 after an investigation into a “moral failure” he had confessed to Gaines six months earlier.

Gaines said he agreed to confidentiality because he mistakenly believed the matter was settled within the family and since the man had repented and asked God to forgive his sin, there was no point in dredging it up after nearly two decades. Gaines later said he should have alerted church leaders immediately, but he had never encountered a situation like that before.

One of Williams’ responsibilities at the church was to counsel potential nursery workers who answered affirmatively to a question about whether they had experienced abuse in their own backgrounds.

“No matter what church officials do or don’t do, we urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Baptist churches or institutions to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling law enforcement, get justice by calling attorneys, and be comforted by calling support groups like ours,” Clohessy said. “This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted, cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.”

Christa Brown, a former activist who for years catalogued clergy sex offenses on the website stopbaptistpredators.org, said the election of Gaines to lead the nation’s largest Protestant group speaks loud and clear: “Clergy child molestation cover-ups are no big deal in Baptistland.”

Brown campaigned unsuccessfully a decade ago to persuade SBC leaders to develop a nationwide system for receiving, evaluating and sharing reports of clergy sex abuse. The convention declined, citing autonomy of the local church.

Recently Clohessy and other SNAP leaders called on two SBC officials to at a minimum create a central “safe place” office to which Baptist clergy sex abuse survivors can file reports about their alleged perpetrators. Clohessy said June 16 that neither Executive Committee President Frank Page nor Ethics and Religious Liberty head Russell Moore has acknowledged receipt of the open letter released June 3.

Clohessy, an abuse survivor who testified before the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002, predicted that if the SBC persists in doing nothing that the next “Spotlight”-style exposé will focus on the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Bellevue isn’t the only high-profile Southern Baptist megachurch questioned for its handling of reported child abuse. In 2013 protestors stood outside Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, alleging cover-up of a former staff member who molested multiple boys in the late 1980s.

Prestonwood Pastor Jack Graham served as SBC president in 2003-2004 and was featured at this year’s SBC Pastor’s Conference just prior to the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting June 14-15 in St. Louis, Mo.

Does anyone else think it is time to start lobbying for a Congressional investigation into child sex abuse? The new administration should start one early in 2017 and let it run for years. It's time to clean up the sickening filth that permeates through America and rescue a generation of children.

Former Virginia Pastor Guilty of Child Sex Abuse Charges to be Sentenced Today

Larry Clark

Updates are in reverse chronological order:

Posted: May 06, 2014 11:18 AM PDT
Updated: Jan 05, 2015 8:18 AM PST

UPDATE: A former Buena Vista, Virginia pastor is set to appear in court Monday afternoon for his sentencing.

In October a Rockbridge County jury found Larry Clark guilty of five of the six charges against him, including two counts of carnal knowledge and three counts of indecent liberties with a child.
   
The jury recommended the maximum punishment of 35 years and a fine of nearly $108,000.
   
A judge will make the final call.

-------
UPDATE: A former Buena Vista pastor has been found guilty on child sex abuse charges.  The jury found him guilty on five of six charges, including two counts of carnal knowledge and three counts of indecent liberties with a child.

The jury had the Larry Clark case for less than an hour.

This conviction means that two other cases against the former pastor will not go forward.  Those cases were backups in the event Clark was found not guilty.

The jury recommended the maximum sentence for Clark, which is 35 years and a nearly $108,000 fine.  He will be sentenced on January 5.

-------
Update: 5:50 p.m.

Lexington, VA - Former Buena Vista pastor Larry Clark was in court today - facing charges he sexually abused teens.

One of the teens, so traumatized by the alleged events, appeared via close circuit TV to testify today... not comfortable being in the same room as his alleged attacker.

While the morning session was used to select a jury the afternoon saw testimony revolve around the one alleged victim's story the Commonwealth believes they can prove.

That spares the other two alleged victims from testifying. It also knocked down Clark's charge count from 27 to six including 3 counts of carnal knowledge and 3 counts of indecent liberties while in a position of authority.

In all Clark faces 45 years in prison for the offenses that allegedly began in 2011... stopping in 2013.

In that testimony, the boy - who was between 13 or 14 at the time it began says it all started with special treatment and dinners.  The boy said that eventually led to fondling while Clark drove him home from church... a drive that would sometimes be interrupted with a stop at Clark's home where it is alleged Clark raped the boy.

The defense pointed out several inconsistencies with the teen's testimony and attacked his inability to remember small details about the events surrounding the alleged crimes.

Lawyers expect this case to go deep into tomorrow afternoon before wrapping up.

---------
Update: 11:45 a.m.:

A jury has been seated in the trial of Larry Clark. Attorneys selected seven men and six women to be on the jury.

Also, all but six charges against Clark have been dropped.

He still faces three counts of indecent liberties and three counts of carnal knowledge.

---------
Rockbridge, VA - A former Buena Vista pastor, charged with dozens of counts of indecent acts with children is scheduled to go on trial today.

A grand jury indicted 62-year-old Larry Clark back in May.

He faces charges including cruelty to a child and carnal knowledge.

At a hearing in February, two alleged victims between 14 and 15 years old testified they were abused at Clark's home or an adjacent church property in Buena Vista.

His trial is set to last two days.

----------
Rockbridge Co., VA - A grand jury has indicted the former Buena Vista pastor who is charged with indecent acts with a child.

Larry Clark, 62, faces charges including cruelty to a child and carnal knowledge.

He was the pastor of the Pentecostal Outreach Church. 

At a hearing in February, two alleged victims between 14 and 15 years old testified they were abused at Clark's home or an adjacent church property in Buena Vista.

Clark will go on trial on July 28th.

American and Aussie Pervert Round-up - Coach, Youth Pastors, Scout, etc.

Pennsylvania Pervert Picked-up in Alabama

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - A former Adams County man who is charged with a sex crime against a child was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Alabama.

Investigators said Cory Murphy, 33, formerly of Reading Township was arrested without incident in Birmingham.

Last month, Reading Township police charged Murphy is involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child and lesser offenses.

Investigators said Murphy fled the area after the charges were filed.

"It is important to bring those charged with serious sex crimes against our children to justice," U.S. Marshal Martin Pane said. "It is my hope that the victim and family members will find comfort knowing the alleged attacker is now in custody."  
  

Michigan High School Volleyball Coach Stung by Police

An athletics coach at a St. Clair County high school faces multiple child sex-abuse charges after he was accused of trying to an arrange via computer a meeting for sex with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl.

Charles Edward Goubert, 53, a resident of Emmett, faces three counts of sexually abusive activity, a 20-year felony; and three counts of communicating with another person via computer to commit to a crime, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years upon conviction.

Goubert was arraigned Thursday in 41B District Court in Clinton Township. Bond for the defendant was set at $100,000. Goubert is due back in court at 1 p.m. Oct. 27. Goubert was arraigned in Macomb County because the arrest took place in Clinton Township.

Goubert served as an assistant volleyball coach at Yale High School in St. Clair County, said Kenneth Nicholl, Yale superintendent. He was a contract employee and not a teacher or otherwise a staff member at the school, Nicholl said.

The coach has been placed on administrative leave and told to avoid contact with students and stay away from school facilities while the charges are pending, Nicholl said.

According to police, the Macomb County Sheriff’s Office Computer Crimes Unit conducted the investigation that led to Goubert’s arrest.

Undercover deputies conversed with the defendant using email and text messages after they responded to an ad Goubert had posted on a social media Website, police said.

Goubert tried to arrange to meet with what he thought was a 13-year-old girl for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity, police said.

After a lengthy investigation, detectives and Goubert arranged a meeting, police said. When Goubert arrived, he was taken into custody. The office of Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith then authorized the multiple-count warrants.

Scout Master Sentenced to 8 Years in Canberra

A former ACT Scout master who  sexually molested and raped a boy three decades ago has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

Willem Bowen Scheeren, now 58, befriended the parents of the child through a Cub Scouts group in Canberra in the late 1970s.

The relationship became so strong that the parents would frequently let Scheeren, then 23 and 24, care for the boy, aged 11 and 12, alone.

But Scheeren, unbeknownst to the victim's parents, had an attraction to adolescent boys, and had himself been subjected to sexual abuse, trauma and humiliation throughout his childhood.

Scheeren is the first child sex offender brought to justice under ACT reforms that closed a loophole preventing the prosecution of some historical molestation cases that were more than 12 months old.
His crimes against the boy began in his shoe shop during school holidays in 1979, when he showed the child pornography and began touching him inappropriately.

That was the first of four separate ordeals of abuse in 1979 and 1980, which would culminate in 12 criminal charges laid this year.

One of the gravest breaches of the family's trust occurred when Scheeren was at their home watching television on a couch next to the boy.

He put a blanket over himself and the boy and molested him for 45 minutes as the boy's and a family friend sat in the same room.

Scheeren was sentenced in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday to eight years imprisonment, but he will be eligible for parole in May 2017.

Chief Justice Helen Murrell described the crimes as a "gross violation of the close relationship between the offender and the victim's parents".

"I acknowledge the terrible impact that these offences must have had on the victim," she said at the start of her sentencing.

"I appreciate they would have obviously had a devastating impact on the victim's family."

But the court heard there was no evidence Scheeren had committed other crimes against children since. In fact, his criminal record was otherwise completely clean.

He had undergone counselling and sought treatment well before he was brought to court, realising the catastrophic consequences of his crimes.

Scheeren's early life experiences – which included being sexually assaulted by a relative, abused by Christian Brothers at school, and watching his father fall off his bike and suffer permanent and severe brain damage – had stunted his personality and left him believing such behaviour was normal.

Scheeren had gone to the family home of his victim to apologise a decade after his abuse, but was told he was not welcome by the father.

He was interviewed by police much later and co-operated to an "unusually high" extent with their investigations.

The court found him to be at low risk of reoffending, given his age, his treatment, and the fact there were no further offences in the intervening decades.


Youth pastor victim says church more concerned with reputation than him

A man who was sexually abused by a Sunshine Coast youth pastor as a child says Australian Christian Churches was more concerned with protecting its reputation than protecting him, an inquiry heard.

The Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has completed hearings into the way Pentecostal churches managed complaints of child sexual abuse in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

Commissioner Jennifer Ann Coate

On the final day of evidence at the Sydney hearing, Peter O'Brien, the lawyer representing a man who was abused by the youth pastor read a statement from his client, known as ALA, that said the past 10 years had been a "living hell".

"They failed to detect the abuse. They failed to prevent the abuse. They failed to support us through the criminal trial process," ALA said.

"It appears to me they were more concerned about the reputation and financial position of the ACC (Australian Christian Churches) above all else."

Mr O'Brien also read a statement from the victim's mother in which she said she and her husband wanted to raise their children in the way of God.

"Unfortunately, we've had this horrendous event in a place we believed was a safe and good environment," she said.

"Our son has been watching these hearings and is so angry that every level of the ACC seems to be still passing the buck and blaming someone else, not caring for the victim."

The former Sunshine Coast youth leader, Jonathan Baldwin, was jailed in 2009 for abusing ALA from the age of 13 for two years.


Former pastor cannot accept son-in-law is paedophile, despite conviction

A former Pentecostal pastor at a Sunshine Coast church cannot accept that a former youth leader who married his daughter is a paedophile, an inquiry has heard.

Jonathan Baldwin was jailed for a maximum of eight years in 2009 for molesting a 13-year-old boy for two years at the Queensland church.

The church, which could not be named for legal reasons, was attended by about 200 people.

Baldwin had a non-parole period of four years and was no longer in jail.

His father-in-law and former boss, Ian Lehmann, told the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday that Baldwin made an error in judgment but was not a paedophile.

"I have two grandsons by him. A third one about to be born," he said.

If I believe he is a paedophile, then I've got to accept the reality that our three grandsons are at great risk."


Texas Youth Pastor charged with Child Sex Offences

A Garland youth pastor was arrested Friday on three child sex abuse warrants, according to officials with the Sachse Police Department.

Sachse is a suburb northeast of Dallas.

Derek Hutter was arrested for continuous sex abuse of a child, possession of child pornography and online solicitation of a minor stemming from an alleged relationship with a 14-year-old who lives in Sachse.

Hutter, 37, remains in the Sachse jail and will be transferred to the Dallas County jail.

Round-up of Disturbing Perverts from All Over

ALABASTER, Alabama - A Birmingham police officer was arrested in Alabaster today on child sex abuse charges.

Joshua Herbinger, 29, is charged with four counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12 years old, said Alabaster Police Chief Curtis Rigney. The warrants were issued against Herbinger this afternoon.

Rigney said the young female victim reported the abuse to the School Resource Officer at her school. Police launched their investigation one week ago. "Detectives were notified immediately and the investigation has resulted in today's arrest,'' Rigney said.

The chief said the victim is not related to Herbinger. The abuse, police said, is reported to have happened over the past two to three years.

Herbinger, who has been a Birmingham police officer for about nine years, will be transferred to the Shelby County Jail where he will be held on $80,000 bond.

Rigney said the investigation is ongoing and more charges could be filed. Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Alabaster police Det. Andrew Pounds at 205-663-7401.

Westminster village set to be rocked by claims of sex abuse against one senior political figure

A political figure in the UK has been asked in for questioning in the in relation to historical child sex allegations involving London care homes.

The name of the individual has not been released  and he has not been charged but is believed to have been in a held a senior position in the British Government and was a major figure in his political party.

The individual was also, connected  to a number of high profile music figures  and his arrest under caution will shock the UK political establishment.

It is understood that the individual denies all claims of historical abuse.

The allegations and interrogations under caution has not been publicised and no name has been released as is standard, but it comes as Paul Gambaccini, the BBC Radio presenter, is released from all threat of charges, after being arrested some months ago.

Gambaccini has long protested his innocence and now the Metropolitan Police say that he will not face any charges.

The political figure has been not arrested and presented himself to Police by appointment under the same controversial arrangements that Rolf Harris was initially engaged with by the Metropolitan Police.

The ramifications from this, should it proceed to charges, is expected to be of earthquake proportions in the Westminster village.

A former senior policeman who was involved in one of the early investigations into abuse by political figures has said to the Sunday World that “political interference certainly impeded investigations of political figures”.

He is reserving a great deal of his testimony and evidence for a judicial inquiry that has been set up to investigate the potential involvement of establishment figures and alleged cover up by their associates and establishment friends.

Christian pastor fakes phone call informing mother of little girl that she was being molested

The royal commission is investigating the way Australian Christian Churches, formerly the Assemblies of God, responded to allegations of abuse.

A six-year-old girl who complained she was being sexually abused by her teacher watched a Christian pastor make a phone call to inform her mother, only to discover later he was faking the call, a royal commission has heard.

Emma Fretton began giving evidence on Friday that she was physically and sexually abused for more than four years from the age of six while a student at Northside Christian College in Bundoora in Melbourne’s north-east.

Fretton told the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse that a teacher, Kenneth Sandilands, would type out lewd stories about her family on a portable typewriter and make her sign the pages.

“He would make me repeat the stories and agree they were true,” she said, adding that if she denied the stories or asked him to stop, he would beat her with a wooden paddle.

She was also touched inappropriately by the teacher, along with at least six other girls.

The commission heard that at least 63 students considered joining a civil action against Sandilands, who was jailed for two years for indecent assault in 2001.

The royal commission is investigating the way Australian Christian Churches, formerly the Assemblies of God, responded to allegations of abuse against Sandilands and two other men.

Fretton said she raised the abuse with officials at the school and the Northside Christian Centre – now Encompass Church – early on, and was told the school “know what [Sandilands] is like”, and assured her “he will get fired and he won’t be your teacher anymore”.

“I was told not to say anything to anyone,” she said.

Fretton said she watched a former pastor at the school, the Rev Denis Smith, make a phone call to her mother to attend a meeting about the abuse, but was told “she couldn’t make it”.

Later Fretton said she discovered: “My mother had not been told by the school.”

A lawyer for Smith denied his client had been in the room for these meetings.

Sandilands was assigned as the victim’s teacher for the next two years. Fretton continued to raise complaints about his abuse, but said she was told the school would “look into it”.

Five students including Fretton commenced civil proceedings against Sandilands and the school in 2000, but one committed suicide before the settlement. Fretton herself collapsed during a mediation session. She was eventually paid $225,000 compensation including legal costs.

“For me, as a six-year-old girl, going to school was the scariest thing,” she said. “I can’t trust people because I’m scared. I’ve got a son, and he goes to creche, and I’m even scared with them.”

She said the abuse had “destroyed her faith in the Lord”.


Man who pretended to be a minister charged with child sex abuse

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine – Presque Isle police say they have arrested a man who pretended to be a minister and sexually abused children.

Police say 67-year-old James Morgan of Fort Fairfield was arrested Wednesday and charged with gross sexual assault, unlawful sexual contact, and unlawful sexual touching. It’s not clear if Morgan has a lawyer.

Police say they know of two alleged victims under the age of 12 and there may be more.

Chief Matt Irwin says Morgan traveled around the state and even to Canada with children to a number of religious activities over the last few years.

Irwin says Morgan may have been a clergyman in the past.

According to the college’s website, Morgan was chaplain at Northern Maine Community College and the University of Maine-Presque Isle.


Islamic Husband to 12 Year Old Child Bride Pleads Guilty to Ongoing Child Sex Abuse

The Lebanese student, who cannot be named, pleaded guilty in Burwood local court on Thursday to one count of persistent sexual abuse of a child, which carries a 25-year maximum jail sentence.

The charge takes in 25 counts of sexual intercourse with a child between 10 and 14, with which the man was originally charged.

He has been ordered not to contact his victim for two years, and a date for sentencing will be decided next week.

Police allege the man married the Hunter Valley girl in an Islamic ceremony in January. His “bride” has since turned 13.

The girl’s father will face trial next year.

The man has had his student visa cancelled and is now living in an immigration detention centre in Villawood.

Hillsong's Brian Houston to Give Evidence Against Paedophile Father at Royal Commission

HIGH-PROFILE Hillsong senior pastor Brian Houston is expected to give evidence at an inquiry into how Pentecostal churches responded to child sex abuse allegations against his father Frank Houston and two other men.

Brian Houston - lead pastor at Hillsong church

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse sitting in Sydney on Tuesday will hear how Hillsong and the Pentecostal association, Assemblies of God, responded to abuse allegations against William Francis ‘Frank’ Houston - the famous preacher behind the movement which gave birth to the mega-church.

Hillsong mega-church

His son Brian Houston was national president of the Assemblies of God (AoG) in Australia from 1997 to 2009. More than 1000 Pentecostal churches are affiliated to the AoG which is now commonly known as Australian Christian Churches (ACC).

Brian Houston was president in 2000 when his father admitted he sexually abused a boy in New Zealand 30 years earlier. Frank Houston was fired by his son from all church roles.

Hillsong in Sydney was created when separate churches run by father and son merged under the leadership of Brian Houston. Frank Houston died in 2004 at age 82. Further allegations against him have come to light since his death.

‘Frank’ Houston
Sexually abused a boy

The charismatic preacher had been a Salvation Army officer in his native New Zealand before founding his first ministry at Lower Hutt near Wellington in 1960. He later became superintendent of the New Zealand Assemblies of God before moving to Sydney in 1977.

The commission will hear also of allegations against two other men and will be looking at the response of the ACC to those allegations.

One of the men, a former youth pastor at a Sunshine Coast church, Jonathan Baldwin, was sentenced to eight years jail in 2009 when he was found guilty of repeatedly molesting a 13-year-old boy who had come to him for counselling.

The other matter the commission will examine is the response of the Northside Christian College and the Northside Christian Centre, (now Encompass Church) to allegations of child sexual abuse made against former teacher Kenneth Sandilands.

Kenneth John Sandilands:
allegations of child sexual abuse.

In a statement issued when the inquiry was announced Encompass Church pastor John Spinella said the church, based at Bundoora, Victoria, welcomed the inquiry.

“As a church we have recognised these past failures and take the opportunity to apologise for the suffering and pain endured by those who were abused,” he said.

The public hearing is expected to run for two weeks and will be the 18th held by the commission.

Hillsong and Other Pentecostal Churches to be Examined by Royal Commission in Australia

A Hillsong Church conference earlier this year: the popular
Pentecostal church will come under royal commission scrutiny.

The popular Hillsong Church will come under the scrutiny of the child sexual abuse royal commission when it examines Australia's Pentecostal institutions at its next public hearing in October.

It will look at allegations made against Frank Houston, who admitted sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand in the 1970s.

Houston was sacked by his son Brian Houston, now the Hillsong Church's senior pastor, when the allegations became public in 2000. The disgraced evangelist died in 2004.

Frank Houston, widely regarded as the
father of Australia's Pentecostal
movement, admitted sexually abusing
a boy in New Zealand in the 1970s.

Houston snr is widely regarded as the father of Australia's Pentecostal movement, through his work with the Australian Assemblies of God, now known as Australian Christian Churches.

Hillsong has grown into one of Australia's biggest movements with 30,000 weekly churchgoers and affiliated congregation around the world. Worship music that came out of Hillsong in the 1990s changed worship music globally.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will also look at the response of Australian Christian Churches to allegations of child sexual abuse made against former church youth worker Jonathan Thomas Baldwin.

Baldwin was sentenced to eight years' jail in 2009 after being found guilty of molesting a teenage boy he met through his role as a youth pastor at a Sunshine Coast church.

Maroochydore District Court heard the abuse started in 2004 and continued for an 18-month period, occurring at a church sleepover, a car park near the church and during a Gold Coast holiday.

The royal commission will also examine the response of the Northside Christian College and the Northside Christian Centre, now Encompass Church, to allegations of child sexual abuse made against former teacher Kenneth Sandilands.

Encompass Church pastor John Spinella said the church welcomed the inquiry and said it was co-operating with royal commission staff.

"As a church we have recognised these past failures and take the opportunity to apologise for the suffering and pain endured by those who were abused," he said.

The public hearing will begin in Sydney on October 7.

Salvation Army Enters Fund-raising Weekend in Australia with Some Big Problems

As it embarks on its annual fundraising weekend, one of the country’s oldest charities is facing a crisis over claims of child sexual abuse. The Salvation Army has at least one known paedophile in its ranks and allegations of at least one other. 

Up to 300* victims of sexual abuse have filed or re-filed claims against the Salvation Army, according to sources within the organisation.

The Salvation Army’s approach to dealing with compensation for victims came under intense scrutiny at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, where it was revealed that some victims were forced to sign confidentiality agreements in order to receive payments.

Major Cliff Randall, a Salvation Army officer who reported abuse in the 1970s while working at a boys’ home, told Background Briefing that the compensation process has been ad hoc.

‘New claims from people who have now felt they can come forward, or from people who have complained in the past, but now that the commission has come up and the army have said that a lot of them weren’t given the proper compensation way back, they can reapply and get a better deal,’ he said. ‘Why wasn’t it done in the first place?’

Majors Marina and Cliff Randall

According to Major Randall, his wife Marina is the only Salvation Army officer currently handling victim interviews. Now, just weeks after the Salvation Army’s last appearance at the Royal Commission, it has lost its two trained investigators, leaving it with no professional capacity to investigate claims.

One investigator is on indefinite stress leave, and the other had his contract discontinued by the Salvation Army before he could finish the cases he was investigating.

Those unfinished cases included an internal inquiry into a current Salvation Army major in his eighties who is alleged to have sexually abused two young women and a child, and a probe into the organisation’s handling of Major Colin Haggar, a known child sex abuser who was allowed to stay in the army.

One of his victims, a witness known as JI, wasn’t prepared to appear at the public Royal Commission hearings but told Background Briefing she was abused three times by Major Haggar.

‘I was sexually abused when I was eight,’ she said. ‘I remember freezing ... they say it’s just like shock, you just go into shock and meltdown.’        

Maj Haggar

‘The occasions were kind of like climbing stairs. The first one was minor, the second was a little bit more severe and the third one was the worst. That’s why I remember three different occasions. Because once they’d happened I left the room straight away.’

JI doesn’t remember primary school and didn’t finish high school.

Major Haggar was dismissed by the Salvation Army for three years, but was still provided with a job and accommodation. That should teach him! Good Grief!

In 1993 he was re-accepted as a captain and rose through the ranks, obtaining a Working With Children check with the army’s support. Last year he was the assistant director of a Salvation Army women’s and children’s shelter.

For Major Cliff Randall, the revelations about the army’s handling of child sex abuse have been too much. The chaplain will not be door knocking for the Red Shield Appeal this year.

‘As far as the Red Shield is concerned, I’m taking a backwards step this year,’ he said. ‘I just don’t feel I can face up to going doorknocking. Unfortunately I have lost a lot of faith in the leadership. At the moment the leadership have got to prove to me that yes they’re prepared to stand up and be counted.’      

The Salvation Army stresses that none of the money donated to the Red Shield Appeal goes to compensate victims abused by Salvation Army officers, but after two months has not provided documents to Background Briefing to support that claim.

*Editor's note: Background Briefing has since learned that the figure of ‘up to 300’ should refer to the total number of ‘live’ complaints lodged with the Salvation Army since mid last year. Sources within the Salvation Army have confirmed that the number of complaints lodged since the first Royal Commission hearings began is around 140. The Salvation Army disputes this, saying the number of complaints lodged since the first Royal Commission hearings in January is 29.

Unbelievable Admissions by Salvation Army Commissioner re: Child Sex Abuser

Salvos commissioner says it's no longer publicly acceptable to have a confessed sex offender in active ministry.

OMG! The Commissioner of the Salvation Army for two Australian states had no problem with employing child sex offenders until he determined that the public didn't want child sex offenders in the ministry.

That is hardly believable! Did he not, at any time, ask God whether He wanted child sex offenders in His ministry? I'm absolutely bewildered how people can be in charge of Christian ministries and have no fear of, or communication with God. Wow!

Did he not, at any time, have any concern for the welfare of the children the pedophile was responsible for? I seriously think Condon should consider resigning.

The following is an ABC Australia radio interview by host Eleanor Hall and reporter Sarah Dingle covering the Royal Commission on Child Sex Abuse.

ELEANOR HALL: To the child abuse Royal Commission now, and the head of the Salvation Army in New South Wales and Queensland told the inquiry that he kept a known child sex offender employed at the charity until last October.

Salvation Army commissioner James Condon also says he didn't think he had an obligation to report that to authorities until last December.

Eleanor Hall

Our reporter Sarah Dingle has been covering the hearings and she joins us now.

Sarah, how did this Salvation Army leader come to make these extraordinary admissions today?

SARAH DINGLE: Well, Eleanor, this particular child sex offender, Colin Haggar, admitted to sexually abusing an eight-year-old girl in 1989. He was never charged, and we've also heard that since last May further child sex abuse allegations against him have come to light.

Today, commissioner James Condon said since May commissioner Condon had been talking to senior personnel about this matter with Colin Haggar - specifically, whether the Salvation Army had an obligation to report Colin Haggar to the authorities.

Until last year, Colin Haggar was the assistant director of a women's and children's shelter.

The Salvation Army didn't report Colin Haggar, but in September an officer captain Michelle White took it upon herself to notify the New South Wales Ombudsman.

SA Major Colin Haggar

By October the Ombudsman was investigating, and that month commissioner James Condon involuntarily retired Colin Haggar.

In December, commissioner Condon had a meeting with the Deputy Ombudsman Steve Kinmond. According to file notes of that meeting, Mr Kinmond said the Salvation Army did have an obligation to notify authorities about Colin Haggar.

But commissioner James Condon claims another Ombudsman investigator at the meeting still said they didn't have to.

JAMES CONDON: I… I, as I said to you and to the Commission the whole matter was so drawn out, and the scenario, with all sorts of different advice being given, and I can remember, Mr Beckett, very clearly that Ruth… is it Ruth Bard… was at odds with Mr Kinmond. That's what I remember in the meeting.

My assessment of that meeting was that she wasn't in agreement with him. So you chose to error on the side of reckless endangerment of children?

SARAH DINGLE: That's commissioner James Condon.

Documents show Deputy Ombudsman Steve Kinmond continued to investigate the matter, asking detailed questions about Colin Haggar and the Salvation Army until last month. Commissioner Condon says he wasn't aware of any of those letters at the time; he'd only become aware of them in the last few days and weeks because they were tendered to the Royal Commission.

SA Commissioner Condon

ELEANOR HALL: And Sarah, did this commissioner James Condon explain why he eventually did remove this child sex offender from active service, especially working with women and children?

SARAH DINGLE: Well, the Commissioner says he only acted because he believes, in the last few years, public attitudes towards having a confessed child sex offender in active ministry had changed.

We know that the Salvation Army introduced a 'minute' in 2007 - a policy stating no convicted or cautioned sex offender could work with children. But commissioner James Condon says that policy wasn't retrospective, so it didn't apply to Colin Haggar. What? Are you serious? I want to scream!!!

Today commisioner Condon said he decided to involuntarily retire Colin Haggar last year - not because that policy had become retrospective - but because he was trying to keep in line with public attitudes.

MICHAEL CONDON: The way things had changed since 2007, in terms of perception, et cetera, about a clergyman - in this case a Salvation Army officer - known sex offender continuing to minister as a Salvation Army Officer…

SIMEON BECKETT: So it's more appropriate that it have retrospective effect?

MICHAEL CONDON: Minutes are not retrospective, I stated that yesterday. But the point I'm highlighting is: perceptions had changed, that's… yeah.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's the Salvation Army commissioner James Condon, speaking to counsel assisting Simeon Beckett at the Royal Commission, and our reporter covering the sex abuse Royal Commission is Sarah Dingle.

Man Indicted for Child Sex Abuse of 6 Year Old in Mt. View Church

ANCHORAGE - ALASKA
A man charged with sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl in a Mountain View church bathroom last month has been indicted on one count of sexual abuse of a minor.

David Chiklak

David Chiklak, 29, was detained in the church parking lot by members of the congregation after police say he brought the girl into the men’s bathroom. Police say a woman in the women’s bathroom heard the girl crying and discovered Chiklak standing over the victim with his belt unbuckled.

Chiklak has arrested at the church and has remained in custody since his arrest, a statement from the District Attorney’s office declared.

The girl was interviewed by investigators and confirmed the sexual abuse, according to charging documents.

If convicted, Chiklak faces a sentence of 25 to 35 years in prison and a fine of up to $500,000.

Chilkak's criminal history includes convictions for assault and criminal trespass, as well as a 2006 conviction in Bethel for sexual abuse of a minor that was amended to misdemeanor harassment after he pleaded no contest.

I don't understand this. The charge was amended from sexual abuse of a minor to misdemeanor harassment after he plead no contest. Why? It makes little sense to me. Please be in prayer for this little girl who was victimized.

Anchorage Police urge anyone with information on this or other child sex assault cases to contact Detective Christopher Thomas at 907-786-2628.

Salvation Army Territory Commissioner Breaks Down at Royal Commission

A leader of the Salvation Army has cried while apologising to victims of child sexual abuse at boys homes run by the organisation.

Commissioner James Condon is the leader of the Salvation Army's Eastern Territory, covering New South Wales, Queensland and the ACT.

He has sat through two weeks of disturbing evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which is examining abuse at four boys' homes in NSW and Queensland.

Former residents of the homes say they were raped by Salvation Army officers and "rented out" for sex between the 1950s and the 1970s.

The commissioner heard that whistleblowers were dismissed as liars and boys were bashed if they reported the abuse.

Salvation Army's Eastern Territories
Commissioner James Condon

Commissioner Condon says as the leader of the Salvation Army's Eastern Territory, he accepts responsibility.

"I want to express our unreserved apology to all who were harmed in any way at all," he told the hearing in tears.

"We are so sorry, deeply sorry, for every instance when children were sexually abused by our personnel while in our care.

"We are so very sorry for each instance, where they felt unable to complain or for when they did, they were not believed."

 James Condon began to express emotion when he was asked about a decision in late January to suspend Major John McIver from the Salvation Army.

The man denies sexually assaulting boys at homes in the Sydney suburb of Bexley and at Indooroopilly in Brisbane in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Commissioner recalled receiving a recent message on the social media site Facebook from a man claiming to be a victim of Mr McIver.

He cried as he recalled a resulting phone call, in which the man described his abuse.

"In those repressive environments, evil and damaged people were able to get away with child sexual abuse for too long," Commissioner Condon said.

"I think that is the Salvation Army's greatest failure."

"The statements reveal that to its shame, the Army allowed some of its own policies to be ignored.

"Every episode of child sexual abuse, excessive punishment, violence, neglect or verbal cruelty inflicted on a child in our care was wrong."

Commissioner Condon says the organisation no longer considers its reputation a priority when dealing with victims of child sexual abuse.

He says the Salvation Army is trialing a policy, known as People First, to respond to victims of abuse.

"The priority is the survivor, not protection of the Salvation Army," he told a hearing on Monday.

As part of what Commissioner Condon calls a "restorative justice approach", survivors are "believed and respected" and asked to prepare a victim impact statement.

The Salvation Army then pays for a counsellor of the victim's choice and the organisation's Professional Standards Office conducts an investigation.

"We do not demand high levels of proof of claim, but simply seek to assess the validity and to rule out any false claims," Commission Condon said.

Victims are handed an ex-gratia payment, the organisation pays further counselling costs and a "restorative meeting" is held with a senior ranking officer of the Salvation Army where an "unreserved apology" is given.

A total of 133 people have gone through this process and received the payment, apology and counselling costs in the past 10 years.

A further six have received an apology and counselling costs, and another person has received just an apology.

In total, the Salvation Army has responded to 157 claims and some have been rejected.

Commissioner Condon has been asked about the nature of the organisation's apologies to victims in recent years, with reference to a passage from the Salvation Army magazine that states the majority of officers have "shown great care and compassion".

Counsel-assisting the royal commission Simeon Beckett has questioned whether some people might perceive the comment as shifting the blame.

"Do you understand that some may express concern about that statement, in the sense that there is blame being apportioned to a small number of wrongdoings - as is indicated there - as opposed to responsibility of the organisation as a whole?" he asked.

"It could be seen that way," the commissioner responded, adding that as a leader of the Salvation Army, he does feel responsible.

Commissioner Condon has pointed out to the hearing that some of the former residents who gave evidence to the public hearing were not known to the Salvation Army.

"There has been a number of people - survivors from our children's homes - who have appeared here and given testimony, that had never come forward," he said.

Chair of the royal commission Justice Peter McClellan suggested it was not that easy.

Royal Commission Justice
Peter McClellan

"Do you have any perception that it may be difficult for some people to approach the army?" he asked.

Commissioner Condon agreed, saying it was made clear during the course of the inquiry.

"The very name, the uniform, an official, an employee, whatever - it brings up all sorts of painful memories," he said.

Another senior ranking officer with the Salvation Army says the inquiry has disgraced the organisation.

Major Peter Farthing is co-ordinating the Salvation Army's response to the royal commission and also serves as the principal of the organisation's Booth training college in Sydney. Booth College sits on the site of the Bexley Boys Home.

When he was sworn in on Friday, Major Farthing opted to take an oath of affirmation instead of an oath on the Bible.

He admits that when victims began to come forward in the mid-1990s, the organisation's legal advice was flawed.

"Our policy was: we will be compassionate, but we will not admit wrong," he told the inquiry.
Sound familiar? Where was the humility and fear of God?

"So we won't say sorry and we won't make a payment unless the person can prove in court that the offence took place."

Some lawyers and Salvation Army staff were soon dismissed, leading to what Major Farthing has described a "generational shift in thinking".

Reflecting on the royal commission hearing, he said: "It's brought a great deal of disgrace and shame to the Salvation Army, which is felt by all of our people."

He has conceded that the organisation is yet to formally discuss the decades of abuse at the hands of its officers.

It's time for the Army to address their failures in a formal way and produce a strategy to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again. 

Lord, I pray You will guide them in that process and that it will bring about a kind of revival within the Salvation Army.

The Dreadful Dichotomy of the Catholic Church

As the Vatican tries to ratchet down the tensions with the UN, it reveals its own incongruities.

ROME (Reuters) - The Vatican sought to defuse tensions with the United Nations on Friday after a damning report which accused the church of covering up child sex abuse by priests.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi adopted a markedly softer tone to Wednesday's sharp criticism of a report by the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child.

The paper accused the Church of valuing its reputation above the protection of children and demanded the Vatican turn over suspected offenders to civil justice.

The Vatican had originally planned a muted response, according to a person familiar with the matter, but attacked the report's demands that the church scale back its opposition to abortion, artificial contraception and homosexuality.

The exchange appeared to leave the church and the United Nations heading for their biggest clash in decades but Lombardi said there was no rift with the world body.

Seriously? Keep reading.

"It is not the case that there has been a confrontation between the UN and the Vatican," he said in a statement. "The Holy See has always given a strong moral support to the United Nations."

Lombardi nevertheless repeated the Vatican's initial criticism of the report, saying it was unfair and biased.

He said that the inclusion of comments on abortion, contraception and homosexuality went beyond the committee's remit and amounted to an attempt to interfere in Church teaching and religious freedom, and accused the committee of pre-writing the report before the Vatican had addressed it.

In my first post on the UN report, I asked if there were any Christians, Catholics, or theologians on the UN Committee. If there were they would know that an external committee cannot change church dogma and that it is absurd to try. The report could not possibly have been written by anyone who had any belief in God, or they would know that.

This report is the first outright attack on religion by the UN, but I guarantee, it will not be the last. Catholics and Protestants should all see this as an ominous sign. Perilous times are coming when all Christians will be persecuted for their beliefs.

The last major clash between the two institutions was in 1994, when the Vatican forced the United Nations to back down on a proposal to approve abortion as a means of birth control at a population conference in Cairo.

Outrage over the abuse of children by clerics has dogged the Church for more than a decade, with lawsuits bankrupting several dioceses, and a series of pontiffs have struggled to put the issue behind them.

Since his 2013 election Pope Francis has called sexual abuse "the shame of the Church" and vowed to continue measures to address it begun by his predecessor Benedict XVI.

Francis announced he would form a committee to advise him on the issue in December, but has yet to appoint its members, and the report increased pressure on the pontiff to act.

The initial anger of the Vatican at the UN report was only slightly muted by Fr Lombardi's response today. Anger is still the dominant emotion instead of contrition and humility. We can blame the tone and the over-reaching of the mandate of the committee for that.

But is the church not under some conviction from God?  Yes, I know Pope Francis feels the shame, but I really wonder if anyone else in the church does? I would prefer to  see an attitude of humility, of repentance, of responsibility for the covering up and enabling of the child abuse within the church. Instead, they claim no authority to deal with individual priests or bishops. That's just hogwash.

I would also like to see some admission of their great sins against God. Jesus said, "What you do to the least of these, you do unto Me." Yet, as I have mentioned before, I see no mention of God anywhere in the churches responses anywhere in the world.

Yet, they are angry when the UN report assaults their stand on homosexuality, abortion, and contraceptives. They are angry because they see themselves as the keeper of God's righteousness on earth. They claim the high moral ground when abominations are occurring within the church and many are complicit in hiding and enabling it.

Priest are supposed to keep themselves holy, to avoid sex so as give themselves fully to God. Obviously, this is not working. Paul writes in 1 Cor 7:8, "But I say to the unmarried and to widows that it is good for them if they remain even as I".

But he follows that with v9, "But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." Paul, in two epistles states that Deacons or Bishops, "must be husbands of only one wife".  

Why on earth does the church forbid priests and bishops to marry? Is it better to molest hundreds of thousands of children than to marry? Is there anything of God in that? These men have not given themselves to God but to their own lusts, yet the church protects them and even enables them.

The Pope needs to admit that celibacy is a complete failure in the priesthood and abandon this unbiblical doctrine.

Vicar had '8,200 Child Sex Abuse Images'

An Anglican vicar was caught with more than 8,000 images of child sexual abuse, including 800 of the "worst kind", Liverpool, England, Crown Court heard.

Ian Hughes, 46, was a successful priest by day but by night was downloading thousands of indecent internet images of children, the court was told.

Hughes admitted 17 offences and was jailed for a year.

The Bishop of Chester said he was "deeply shocked" at Hughes' "unacceptable" actions.

Hughes has resigned from the priesthood.

Ian Hughes

Expressing his "profound regret", the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster apologised to Hughes' former parishioners in Poulton and Seacombe in Wallasey.

He added: "They have been badly let down."

"Ian Hughes' court appearances and sentencing have come as a deep shock to all who know him. His actions have been totally unacceptable for a Christian minister, and his case will now be considered by the disciplinary procedures of the church," the bishop said.

Hughes told police he was relieved when they raided his vicarage in Wallasey last year. They found 8,200 images he had downloaded, including 800 that are categorised as the worst kind legally.

He told officers it was "like an addiction" and he had been attracted to young boys since he was a teenager and had "struggled" with his sexuality throughout his life.

Det Insp David Rich, of Merseyside Police's cyber investigations unit, said the sentence should "send out a very clear message to paedophiles that they cannot hide behind the anonymity of the internet to commit crimes against children and they will eventually be caught."

He added: "All the images represent children, in some way, being abused, and every time a picture is downloaded by a paedophile it creates a vicious circle of misery which eventually leads to more abuse and more victims."

We should be praying that pedophiles really do get the message. We should also pray that Ian Hughes gets his life back together when he gets out of prison.

Salvation Army Grieved at the Horrific Treatment of Boys in Its Care

A Salvation Army officer in Sydney would send boys who were in care to the homes of adults to be sexually assaulted, an inquiry (Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sex Abuse) has been told.

The officer, Captain Lawrence Wilson, was moved by the Salvation Army between four boys' homes in Queensland and NSW between the late 1950s and 1977.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse began its investigation at a public hearing in Sydney on Tuesday into what happened at those homes -
The Alkira Home for Boys at Indooroopilly and
the Endeavour Training Farm at Riverview, both in Queensland, as well as
the Bexley Boys Home in Sydney and
the Gill Memorial Home in Goulburn, NSW.

All the homes have since closed.


Mr Wilson, who died in 2008, began his career in 1956 when he was posted as an assistant officer to the Riverview farm. He also worked as a welfare officer in NSW but left in 1965 following a severe reprimand for violence against a child.

Raymond Carlile, a former resident at Riverview, said on Tuesday he was eight when he was raped by Mr Wilson. He and his younger brother, identified only as EG, had been sent to the farm because they were being beaten by their father.

Alkira Home for Boys

Mr Carlile, who gave evidence by webcast from Gympie, Queensland, broke down as he told how he was tied by his ankles and suspended down a well because officers at the home thought he was trying to escape - although he had just fallen asleep in the bush after playing with other boys.

The brothers ate raw potatoes and onions because they were so hungry and drank water from a river polluted by animal carcasses, the commission heard.

Both men recalled Wilson being particularly brutal and told of beatings with straps, canes and planks until children bled.

EG was sent back to the home when he was a teenager and told the commission from the stand on Tuesday he witnessed one boy chained to a tree by the neck for a week.

Members of the advocacy group Care Leavers Australia Network, (CLAN) who were at the hearing, spontaneously applauded as both men gave evidence.

Simeon Beckett, counsel assisting the commission, said evidence would identify Mr Wilson as the most prolific of the alleged child sexual abusers in The Salvation Army Eastern Territory.

The commission has identified five officers of the Salvation Army about whom there are serious allegations - Russell Walker, John McIver, Donald Schultz, Victor Bennett (also deceased) and Mr Wilson.

Mr Beckett said Mr Wilson raped boys, forced them to have sex with one another, flogged them and threatened them with further punishment if they disclosed their treatment to anyone.

He said evidence is expected to detail "Wilson sending boys to the homes of adults to be sexually assaulted by them".

Victor Bennett (Major) was accused of picking up boys as young as 4 years old and punching them repeatedly in the face.

The Salvation Army has made a number of ex-gratia payments to victims ranging from $50,000 to $125,000.

Kate Eastman, senior counsel representing the Salvation Army told the hearing: "We (the Salvation Army) are grieved that such things happened. We acknowledge that it was a failure of the greatest magnitude."

This was a message repeated by the Salvation Army's territorial commander for the eastern region, Commissioner James Condon, outside the hearing.

Australia's Royal Commission Turns it's Guns on Sally Ann

The fifth case study by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will start in Sydney on Tuesday.

The focus of the public hearing will be the response of the Salvation Army to child sexual abuse within four homes:

the Alkira Salvation Army Home for Boys at Indooroopilly,
the Bexley Boys in NSW;
Riverview Training Farm in Queensland;
and the Gill Memorial Boys Home in Goulburn in NSW.

As well as the movement of officers and staff, the Salvation Army's processes for dealing with allegations of abuse will be examined in the two-week hearing.

At a child abuse inquiry in Victoria last year it was revealed that since 1997 the Salvation Army has received 474 abuse claims, 470 of which arose from its children's homes, over 30 to 40 years.

Only in Australia would you find a name like 'Indooroopilly'.

US Court Decisions Re: Child Sex Abuse Cases

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A late Yale University professor's family should be allowed to sue the disgraced Roman Catholic order the Legion of Christ over a more than $1 million bequest, a federal magistrate judge in Rhode Island recommended.

The retired mechanical engineering professor, James Boa-Teh Chu, was living in East Providence, R.I., before he died in 2009. His son, Paul Chu, sued in U.S. District Court in Providence in 2012, saying his father was coerced, defrauded and deceived into signing over many of his assets to the Legion.

Among the allegations made in the lawsuit, Chu says members of the order convinced his devout father that the Legion's founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, was a saint, even as the church was investigating allegations against him including sex abuse. The Vatican took over the order in 2010 and Pope Benedict XVI ordered a wholesale reform.

US Supreme Court

Supreme Court justices expressed compassion for a woman raped as a child as they struggled with how much money should be paid to her by one man convicted of possessing pornographic images of the abuse that have spread among thousands of online viewers.

The woman known as "Amy" was in the courtroom, her legal team said, for arguments in which the justices talked frankly about the abuse she and other victims of child pornography suffer from those who look at the pictures.

"The woman has undergone serious psychiatric harm because of her knowledge that there are thousands of people out there viewing her rape," Justice Antonin Scalia said early in the hour long arguments.

Yet the court seemed to wrestle with determining how much restitution for counseling, lost income and legal fees any single defendant should be asked to pay.

Missoula, Montana

MISSOULA, Mont. -- Three people arrested in a child sex sting operation in Missoula denied the charges against them Tuesday.

Christopher Michael Cooper, 30, and Justin Gale Walker, 28, both pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse of children during a hearing before District Judge Karen Townsend, the Missoulian reported.

Prosecutors said Cooper and Walker were among several people who responded to an online ad in which a woman purported to offer a 12-year-old girl for sex. Charging documents said the two men were arrested after negotiating with undercover officers to have sex with the fictitious girl.

Jenna Elizabeth Davis, 29, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to sexually abuse children for allegedly arranging for her boyfriend to have sex with the girl.

The boyfriend, Chad Lee Briggs, 36, along with Matthew Steven Keith, 22, are scheduled to enter their pleas Wednesday to sexual abuse of children.

Neal Lewis Gray, 54, pleaded not guilty Jan. 9, while a seventh suspect — former Mineral County juvenile probation officer James Stewart Myers (No relation, I hope) — was found dead in his home last week.


A Florida jury has ordered the Florida Baptist Convention to pay $12.5 million to a man who was sexually abused by a Southern Baptist church planter as a boy, but the attorney representing the religious group insists the judgement will be overturned once he files an appeal.

Douglas W. Myers

While the jury's verdict came on Saturday, Jan. 18, Gary Yeldell, the attorney representing the Florida Baptist Convention, said on Tuesday that his client plans to appeal the Lake County jury's decision because the church planting pastor was working independently and not under the supervision of the organization at the time of the crime.

The 64-year-old former church planter spent seven years in prison after pleading guilty to lewd and lascivious molestation of the boy, who he met in 2005 at Bay Street Baptist Church in Lake County and abused for six months. Douglas W. Myers, (that's it, I'm changing my name) married at the time, reportedly left a trail of sex abuse allegations in various churches where he worked during his 30-plus years in Christian ministry. Amazing that it didn't catch up to him for more than 30 years. How dreadful!