Robert Corfield, ex-minister of secretive sect,
admits to child sex abuse
By George WrightBBC News
Robert Corfield, a man who abused a boy in Canada in a secretive Christian church in the 1980s, has spoken publicly about what happened for the first time.
He was confronted by the BBC as part of a wider look into claims of child sexual abuse spanning decades within the church, known as The Truth.
His name is one of more than 700 given by people to a hotline set up to report sexual abuse within the church.
The sect says it addresses all abuse allegations.
The church, which has no official name but is often referred to as The Truth, The Way or the Two by Twos, is believed to have up to 100,000 members worldwide, with the majority in North America.
The potential scale of the abuse has been captured through a hotline - set-up last year by two women who say they were also sexually abused by a church leader when they were children. People have phoned in claiming they too were abused, with testimonies stretching back decades through to present day.
The highly secretive and insular nature of the church has helped abuse to thrive, say former and current insiders who spoke to the BBC. It has many unwritten rules, including that followers must marry within the group and keep mixing with outsiders to a minimum.
The church was founded in Ireland by a Scottish evangelist in 1897 and is built around ministers spreading New Testament teachings through word-of-mouth.
One of its hallmarks is that ministers give up their possessions and must be taken in by church members as they travel around, spreading the gospel. This makes children living in the homes they visit vulnerable to abuse, the insiders said.
Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting
There is much more to this story, please link to the BBC at: Former church member Michael Havet, to continue reading.
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Former priest sentenced to federal prison
for sexual abuse of a child
Courtesy of the Department of Justice - February 28, 2024
NEWBERRY — Jaime Adolfo Gonzalez-Farias, a/k/a “Father Gonzalez,” 69, a former Catholic priest, of Laurens, was sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison following a conviction for transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual acts.
Father Gonzalez-Farias served as a Catholic priest since at least 1990, including in South Carolina from 2015 until his suspension by the Catholic authorities in late 2020. He most recently served at parishes in Newberry and Laurens Counties. He also served in parishes in Florida and New Jersey.
In early 2020, Gonzalez-Farias met the minor victim, an 11-year-old boy, and his family through his position as a priest. Gonzalez-Farias began giving high levels of attention to the child, including giving gifts such as a cellphone that he used to communicate with the victim. In November 2020, the child’s family reported to Catholic authorities their concern that the priest’s relationship with the child was inappropriate. Church authorities suspended Gonzalez-Farias and made a report to the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office and FBI Columbia Field Office.
Investigators learned that in November 2020 the priest took the minor victim to Florida alone under the pretense of a beach vacation, and during that trip, Gonzales-Farias masturbated in front of the victim, attempted to sexually assault him, and showed the minor victim pornography. Investigators uncovered numerous text messages and WhatsApp messages sent by the priest to the minor, that included affectionate names for the child and messages that were inappropriate, crossed appropriate boundaries, and were consistent with the minor victim’s disclosure of abuse.
After his arrest by FBI agents on Nov. 28, 2022, at the Miami International Airport, Gonzalez-Farias admitted that he touched the minor victim’s genitals in Florida and that he showed the victim pornography and showered with the victim in South Carolina. FBI searched the contents of Gonzales-Farias’s devices, and the contents of those devices showed a continued interest in minors. Gonzalez-Farias pleaded guilty in August 2023.
United States District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis sentenced Gonzalez-Farias to 262 months imprisonment, followed by a lifetime of supervised release. Gonzalez-Farias will also have to register as a sex offender as a result of his conviction, and he was ordered to pay restitution to the victim for losses incurred as a result of his conduct.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.go.
The case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office and the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elliott B. Daniels and E. Elizabeth Major are prosecuting the case.
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