Former youth pastor called boy 8 times, told him to shut up after he revealed abuse, prosecutor says
WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI - A former youth pastor charged with more than 30 felonies for sexually abusing children will stay in jail.
Simpson made the decision in a Thursday, Jan. 30, hearing. Radcliff’s attorney, Grand Rapids-based James A. Thomas, asked Simpson to reduce his client’s bond to $10,000.
Radcliff’s bond had previously been set at $3 million.
“(A) $3 million bond is tantamount to no bond,” Thomas said during the hearing. “Even if it was $1 million, it’s still tantamount to no bond.”
The worship director and interim youth pastor for Oakwood Baptist Church in Augusta Township told a victim who had come forward to “keep his... mouth shut,” using an expletive, after allegations surfaced, according to Amy Reiser, an assistant prosecutor for Washtenaw County. Radcliff reportedly called the victim eight times.
“This is how he’s acting when he’s not been charged, when he’s not been arrested and not been arraigned,” Reiser said. “He is intimidating and threatening the victims.”
Read more: 10 victims, potentially more, detailed in sexual abuse allegations against youth pastor
He also drove to Virginia, home of his alma mater Liberty University, while the investigation was ongoing, Reiser said.
When setting bond, judges weigh both the defendant’s danger to the community and likelihood they will flee and not appear in court.
Simpson expressed concern about Radcliff previously leaving the state. Though Radcliff was not under any bond conditions at the time, the behavior was “very troublesome,” the judge said.
“I’m looking at the behavior of the defendant because that’s what I have to bank on if he were to be released,” he said.
Radcliff has been charged with 33 felonies, including nine counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, eight counts of aggravated child sexually abusive activity, eight counts of child sexually abusive activity and eight counts related to using a computer to commit a crime. He is facing up to life in prison.
Radcliff was arraigned on 11 charges Oct. 20, followed by another 22 felonies Nov. 26.
Police identified 10 boys and one girl who were allegedly sexually abused, including at least one victim younger than 13 at the time the alleged abuse occurred.
As part of her argument, Reiser shared part of the testimony she said was likely to be heard at Radcliff’s preliminary examination, when a judge will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to send the case to trial court.
In 2015, Radcliff used Snapchat to contact a 14-year-old boy involved with Oakwood Baptist Church, eventually asking him about oral sex and offering to take him on a drive, Reiser said. In the middle of the night in July, Radcliff drove to the boy’s house and the boy snuck out and got into his car.
Radcliff then allegedly sexually assaulted the boy. A similar incident allegedly occurred when the boy was 15.
Radcliff reportedly referred to the incidents as their “cute little secret,” Reiser said.
He is also accused of bribing some of the children with goods, money or visits to restaurants in exchange for photos and videos of them masturbating, according to previous reporting. Eight children sent or received explicit photos or videos, police said.
Radcliff will next appear in court Feb. 24.
Church apologizes for underestimating risk of abuse by British pastor
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa (ACSA) has apologized for failing to protect members, including children, from the risk of abuse by a British pastor, John Smyth, who died without facing criminal charges.
Yes, but he had to, or has to face Jesus Christ.
The apology by Thabo Makgoba, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, on Tuesday came following the publication of a new report on Smyth on January 31. According to the inquiry, which Makgoba authorized last year, no evidence of “similar abuse” by the pastor while he was in South Africa was found. However, it acknowledged that there was a “very high risk that [cases of abuses] could have happened.”
“We find that the protective measures in place within ACSA at the time Smyth lived in South Africa inadequately mitigated the serious risk of such conduct being repeated here by Smyth, or others,” the Farlam-Ramphele Panel reported.
“I accept the panel’s findings unreservedly. I acknowledge that during Smyth’s time in Cape Town, God’s people were exposed to the potential of his abuse and I and the Diocese apologize to our congregants and the wider community that we did not protect people from that risk,” archbishop Makgoba said in response.
Smyth was a Canadian-born British attorney and a youth pastor. He is accused of abusing dozens of children in Zimbabwe, where he had lived from 1985 until 2001, when he moved to South Africa and died in 2018 while under investigation.
According to the Makin Review, an independent investigation published in the UK in November, Smyth used his position as a lay preacher working with youth to select boys and young men for his “clearly sexually motivated, sadistic regime” of vicious beatings. He is estimated to have victimized more than 100 children and young men in the UK and Zimbabwe in the 1970s and 1980s. He would bring his victims home and flogged them with a garden cane, some to the point where they had to wear diapers because of the bleeding.
Keith Makin, a former British government official who led the independent review described the abuse by Smyth as “prolific and abhorrent.” Makin said the Church of England’s responses to the efforts of some individuals to bring the misconduct to the attention of authorities were completely ineffective and amounted to a cover-up.
Following the report, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, resigned from his position as the highest-ranking clergyman in the Church of England, taking full responsibility for inaction regarding Smyth’s alleged wrongdoing.
The latest probe in South Africa was authorized in response to the Makin report to determine whether the ACSA received warnings about Smyth from the Church of England and what measures were developed to prevent such abuses.
“Although Smyth’s abuses in the UK and then Zimbabwe were (according to the UK inquiry) known to the Church of England from the early 1980s, no warning was given to ACSA until 2013,” the panel stated.
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