Seventh Day Adventist member convicted of child rape says religion “guiding light in his life”

The Times - UK October 16, 2009

Churchgoer groomed young girls for sex by reading them Bible extracts

by Adam Fresco, Crime Correspondent

A churchgoer who groomed young girls for sex by reading them extracts from the Bible faces life in jail after being convicted of a catalogue of crimes.

Gene Morrison, 51, targeted vulnerable young girls to satisfy his perverted fantasies, including the rapes of two girls aged 10 and 11.

He was unmasked as a sexual predator after his victims discovered that he had been jailed in 2007 for masquerading as a forensic scientist supplying potentially flawed evidence in 700 trials across Britain.

Morrison, a karate expert who also ran a Thai boxing club and was nicknamed “Rocky”, was described in court as a superficially charming and charismatic man who infiltrated the lives of those he abused over nearly 30 years.

His victims included vulnerable mothers, one of whom Morrison met through his church and promised to marry, saying, “I’m your saviour”, Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, was told.

Morrison, who attended a Seventh Day Adventist church in Stockport, Greater Manchester, was convicted of raping two girls under 13, six counts of indecent assault, four counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child and one count of perverting the course of justice. All the victims were aged under 16 at the time.

He was cleared of assaulting two other young women, and jurors were unable to reach verdicts involving another four.

He was remanded in custody to face sentence in December after prosecutors offered no further evidence over the undecided charges.

Morrison had denied 33 charges. He has two previous convictions for assaulting women: one he punched and the other was slapped across the face. In cross-examination, Morrison conceded that he had “struck out” against women but did not class it as violence.

Accused of being hypocritical as far as his religious beliefs were concerned, Morrison said that his religion was the “guiding light in his life” and that he tried to “copy the example of Jesus Christ”, but admitted “drifting away from the path sometimes”.

After his convictions for the fraud, his victims, some of whom he met through the Church, came forward to tell police that they had been attacked by Morrison. It was said that he gave some of them money and gifts or resorted to violence so that he could control them.

Neil Flewitt, QC, for the prosecution, said: “This man is a sexual predator with a particular interest in young woman, and by young I mean under-age girls.

“He is a superficially charming and charismatic man who has over many years infiltrated the lives of a large number of vulnerable mothers and children for the specific purpose of satisfying his own warped sexual desires.

“He would befriend them, and the trust of their families so he could take them home a sexually abuse them. He manipulated and groomed his victims by making them feel safe and special.”

When he was jailed in 2007 he was described as an “inveterate and compulsive liar” who had tricked judges, police and lawyers by producing bogus quaifications he had downloaded from the internet.

While running the Hyde-based Criminal and Forensic Investigations Bureau he was been paid at least £250,000 in taxpayers’ money for his “expert” advice.

This article was found at:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6877354.ece


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Sex Charges for Leader of Doomsday Sect

ABC News - May 6, 2008

Self-Described Messiah Arrested After State Removed Three Teens From N.M. Compound
By DAVID SCHOETZ

A self-described Messiah was arrested on sex charges involving minors two weeks after state officials took three teenagers from his New Mexico compound amid allegations of sexual abuse, authorities in New Mexico confirmed to ABC News today.
"State police and criminal agents are interviewing Wayne Bent right now," Peter Olsen told ABC News.
Olsen had few details beyond Bent's initial arrest, which happened without incident sometime this morning at Strong City, Bent's compound in New Mexico's rural northeastern corner.
Chief Scott Julian of the Clayton Police Department confirmed that Bent was charged with three counts of criminal sexual contact with a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He is being held at the Clayton-Union County Consolidated Detention Facility, Strong confirmed to ABC News.
Bent, who in his writings also goes by the name of Michael Travesser, is leader of a doomsday sect called Lord of Our Righteousness Church.
Three teens, a 16-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl, were taken into custody by state officials during a three-day period starting April 22.
Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for the state's Children, Youth and Families Department, told ABC News last week that the state is looking into the best options for the children. Serna declined to comment on today's arrest, citing a judge's gag order in the case.
Child welfare officials were working with the district attorney in Union County, N.M. "We're conducting a thorough assessment," Serna said at the time. "We did receive information alleging inappropriate contact with minors on the compound."
Serna would not say who provided her department with the tip, but said it came from a "very reliable source."
By his own admission, sex with his followers is an aspect of Bent's church. He wrote in a Sept. 11, 2007, Web site post that he had sex with three women, including his son's wife, at God's prompting. He also wrote about virgins visiting him in his bed but claims he declined their requests for sex.
Bent's group is featured in the National Geographic program "Inside a Cult," scheduled to air this week. In the program, he acknowledged lying naked with virgin followers and describes nakedness as "another symbol of our relationship to God."
Prudence Welch spent 15 years as a member of Bent's group. She fled in December 2005. She said that she did not believe Bent had sex with virgins but that he did exert mental abuse and he did take the wives of other men as his own. "Pretty much all marriages were somewhat on hold," Welch told "Good Morning America" last week.
John Sayer, another former Bent follower, told The Associated Press that Bent "was supposed to sleep" with his two teen daughters. He took his family and left, but one of the girls returned on her own and is among the three teens taken into custody last week, he said.
The recent string of visits by authorities is not the first time that law enforcement has descended on Strong City. The FBI, state police, local law enforcement and social workers went to the compound in 2002 when rumors circulated that the group was planning a mass suicide. No suicides took place, no arrests were made and no children were taken into custody, according to state police and child protective services.

Bent broke from the Seven Day Adventist church in 1987 to form his Lord of Our Righteousness Church. On the group's Web site, the 66-year-old described being anointed the Messiah by God in 2000, shortly after moving to the New Mexico property.
Bent, who wears a beard and, in some photographs, flowing robes, has not granted interviews but, along with his followers, has used his Web site to criticize efforts by authorities to investigate the sect.
In one post, he referred to the media's "witches brew" in a posting alongside a video showing one of the teens as she is taken into custody.
"There was never any child molestation, or adult molestation by anyone, including myself," he wrote in another post. "There has never been 'sex with minors' or anything remotely approaching that, and I was never the initiator in any of the events."
Bent identified the teens who were taken from the compound and provided what he claimed are writings from them that show their confusion about why the state would take them into custody. "She's very clear about the direction she's going in in her life," a narrator said over video footage of one of the teens being taken away, "much clearer than many adults."
The group claimed that the teenagers taken by the state have family members living among Bent's followers and consent from parents who do not live on the compound.
Jeff Bent, identified as Bent's son, appealed to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in a rambling letter in which he claimed to be a former police officer. "I am incensed at the hypocrisy of your world, that you can accuse us of the very crimes your cult is guilty of," Bent wrote.
The group's Web site features a slew of postings, both written and on video, by church members professing various doctrines tied to the church. An April 10, 2008, posting is titled "The Apocalypse Is Come," and there are many references to an Oct. 31, 2007, doomsday. A recent post points to the crumbling American economy as evidence that the eternal end is near. "Never in earth's history has the prophecy of final things come so clearly."

The case has eerie echoes of last month's police raid of a remote Texas ranch that is home to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect. Texas cops took away more than 400 children because they believe the kids were sexually abused or in danger of being sexually abused.
Since the children were admitted to the state's foster care system, Texas officials said about 60 percent of the girls under the age of 17 were either pregnant or already mothers, that many of the children had past evidence of broken bones and that writings in confiscated journals indicated some of the boys had also been sexually abused.
The sect's leaders, who include imprisoned sect "prophet" Warren Jeffs, deny any sexual or physical abuse of their children.
The group broke away from the Mormon church when the church outlawed polygamy. But arranged marriages and pioneer-style, floor-length dresses remain staples of the community.
This article was found at:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=
4796801&page=1

Teens Taken From Cult at Center of New Film

ABC News - May 2, 2008

By JEN PEREIRA, KIRAN KHALID and STEPHANIE DAHLE

Three teenagers were removed from a New Mexico doomsday cult compound after allegations of sexual abuse surfaced. The teens — two girls and a boy — were removed Wednesday after allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the church leader, Michael Travesser, said state officials.

Prudence Welch, who spent 15 years as a member of the New Mexico cult, fled the compound in 2005. She talked to "GMA" Friday about her time there.

The Lord Our Righteousness Church centers on Travesser, who led his acolytes to Strong City, N.M. seven years ago and declared himself the son of God and the sect's messiah, according to material posted on the group's Web site.
Travesser has acknowledged that naked, underage virgins had laid with him on his bed, according to the group's Web site.
Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for the state's Children, Youth and Families Department, said that the state took three children into custody.
"We did receive information alleging inappropriate contact with minors on the compound," Serna confirmed to ABC News. Serna would not say who provided her department with the tip, but said it came from a "very reliable source."
Though he admitted in a new National Geographic documentary to lying naked with minors — to bring them closer to God — Travesser denies having sex with them.
"Nakedness is another symbol of our relationship with God. We are naked and unashamed," Travesser told National Geographic in a film that airs next week. "I treated them with the same deference as if I was a physician, an M.D. who was doing surgery."
"Esther," a cult member, described her interaction with Travesser.
"He took me to bed and laid me down and somehow it was like all of heaven was open to me, somehow I started to see God, after all he is the son of God," she told National Geographic.
In 2000, shortly after moving to the New Mexico property in the state's northeastern corner, Travesser, 66, began claiming that he was annointed by God as the group's divine leader, according to the group's Web site.
"God said to me, 'You are messiah,' certainly by no instruction from me," Travesser told National Geographic. "Two witnesses, these two left their homes, left their families and it wasn't at my instruction or behest."
The group began in California after Travesser broke from the Seven Day Adventist church in 1987 to form his Lord of Our Righteousness Church. Reports have put the number of church members between 50-60 people.
Serna said that the state is looking into the best options for the children. "From a child protective standpoint, our concern is the parental role where the parents, either by neglect or active participation, abandoned or neglected a child," she told ABC News.
It's not the first time police have been to Strong City. The FBI, state police, local law enforcement and social workers went to the compound in 2002 when rumors circulated that the group was planning a mass suicide. No suicides took place, no arrests were made, and no children were taken into custody, according to state police and child protective services.
In the current case, Serna said, concern is focused more on the parents of the teens taken into custody than the group's leader.
Prudence Welch spent 15 years as a member of the cult. In December 2005, she fled the cult and its compound in Strong City, New Mexico with her then-husband Jim.
Welch told ABC news that while she "somehow believes" Travesser did not have sex with the virgins, the mental abuse exerted by Travesser is intense.
"One day, you can have cakes and cookies. The next day, it's a sin. One day you can talk to your relatives. The next day, you can't," Welch said, calling the compound a "mental gymnasium."
Welch recalled the beginning of Travesser's claims that he was the group's messiah. Travesser got rid of the other ministers in the church, divorced his wife and started implementing new teachings.
"He started to take other men's wives as his own and other odd behaviors," she said. "Pretty much all marriages were somewhat on hold or dissolved." Travesser took two female witnesses and started laying with the seven virgins a few years later, according to Welch.
Welch now lives in Washington state with her children, but other family members including her mother still live in the compound.
In 2007, Travesser proclaimed the world would end at midnight on Halloween. With glee, his followers prepared for an end that never came.
"He's gained their trust, so what he says is the truth. It doesn't matter if it matches the Bible or anything else," Welch explained. "You just take what he says and swallow it and smile."

Another cult member, "Heal," said her mother thought she had been brainwashed.
"My mom, she told me one time that she thought I was brainwashed and I thought yeah, I am brainwashed, Michael has washed my brain of all my corrupt thoughts," she laughed.
Travesser has not been charged with a crime and lashed out angrily Wednesday on the group's Web site, calling the state's removal of the children a "kidnapping."
"No sex acts with teenagers have ever happened here, but the satanic forces of the media continue to concoct their witches brew in order to destroy the message that was sent to you from heaven," according to a posting on site apparently made by Travesser. This also included video shot by church members showing the first of the teens taken from the compound by officials.
"There was never any child molestation, or adult molestation by anyone, including myself," the posting continued. "There has never been 'sex with minors' or anything remotely approaching that, and, I was never the initiator in any of the events."
The posting identified the teens who were taken from the compound and provided what purports to be writings from them that show their confusion over why the state would take them into custody. "She's very clear about the direction she's going in in her life," a narrator says over video footage of one of the teens being taken away, "much clearer than many adults."
The group claims that the teenagers taken by the state have family members living among Travesser's followers and consent from parents who do not live on the compound.
"Even so, there have been no national laws broken here in this land, even if the laws are manmade and concocted for the slavery of children," Travesser wrote in one post. "Instead of marriage, the world now must watch their children have sex in the back seats of cars, and behind the garage, and they must submit to a million abortions every year."
The group's Web site also features a slew of anonymous postings, both written and video, by church members professing various doctrines tied to the church. An April 10, 2008 posting is entitled "The Apocalypse Is Come," and there are many references to the Oct. 31, 2007 doomsday. A recent post points to the crumbling American economy as evidence that the eternal end is near. "Never in earth's history has the prophecy of final things come so clearly."
In the meantime, the three teens, a 16-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old girl, are being kept away from the compound. Child welfare officials will work with the district attorney in Union County, N.M., as the criminal investigation continues. "We're conducting a thorough assessment," Serna told ABC News.
Learn more about the Lord of Righteousness church from National Geographic's documentary "Inside a Cult." The film premieres on May 7, 2008, on the National Geographic Channel.
This article was found at:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/
story?id=4772268&page=1

Former follower: Sect leader wanted to sleep with daughters

Las Cruces Sun-News
May 2, 2008

By DEBORAH BAKER Associated Press Writer
CLAYTON, N.M.—For 16 years, he followed the man who calls himself Michael, finally settling along with other families on a former ranch in a remote corner of New Mexico.
There were "red flags" along the way, but John Sayer said he finally parted ways with the apocalyptic church in late 2005.
Michael "said God told him that he was supposed to sleep with seven virgins," recalled Sayer, 36. Two were to be Sayer's daughters, then ages 14 and 15.
"I just told him no. ... I'm not in agreement. I don't see it's right," Sayer said.
Sayer, his wife and daughters left the compound, although his daughters returned. His youngest was still living there last week when she was removed by the state Children, Youth and Families Department, Sayer said.
Two girls and one boy, all under age 18, were taken from the community because of allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the sect's leader. State officials are investigating. Sayer said he's spoken with his daughter by phone, but has been advised not to discuss the state custody case.
Sayer said Michael Travesser—real name Wayne Bent, 66—did sleep with seven virgins, but all were over 18 and did not include his daughters.

However, Sayer said his daughters "lay naked" with Michael although they said there was no sex involved. He said he doubts his daughters were molested, but that "anything's possible."
Bent, who said God anointed him Messiah in July 2000, wrote in a Web site posting Wednesday that "there was never any child molestation, or adult molestation by anyone, including myself. There has never been 'sex with minors' or anything remotely approaching that."
District Attorney Donald Gallegos of Taos, whose jurisdiction includes the area, said Thursday authorities received a tip.
"I believe it was one of the parents—who no longer are at the compound—had a concern that led to the investigation by the department, which later involved the removal of the children," he said.
Sayer's younger daughter —— under the name "Healed"—has a posting on the church's Web site dated December 2007 in which she wrote, "Michael DID NOT molest me, and my laying with him was not sexual in any way, either."
"Michael sacrificed himself and was willing to look like a pedophile so that I might be bonded inseparably to the Father in Heaven," she also wrote.
Bent's Lord Our Righteousness Church settled in 2000 in northeastern New Mexico close to the Colorado border, where flatter ranch land gives way to tree-studded rock outcroppings. Families in the compound live in recreational vehicles, tents and modular buildings scattered across the property.
On Thursday, handwritten "No Trespassing" signs marked the gates to the property, and there were few signs of life. An occasional vehicle kicked up dust on the compound's roads. A lone figure could be seen hiking a hillside in the distance, and a man walking across the property waved at reporters trying to get his attention.
Bent has declined interviews.
Residents of Clayton say the bearded men and the women in long denim skirts had a mellow relationship with the town. They would come to town to pick up food—fruits and vegetables, particularly—from the Ranch Market, the closest big grocery store.
"They've been very nice. ... Overall, they've been very easy neighbors," said Brian Moore, a state lawmaker who owns the market and has dealt with members of church since they arrived in the area.
Janet Brawley, the market's assistant manager, said some of the compound's members worked outside jobs, with the men doing remodeling or construction jobs and the women doing housework.
"One lady told me they're not allowed to put what they believe on other people," Brawley said. "I've never heard of them trying to convert anyone."
Church members were familiar to residents of Des Moines, a village of 150 about 30 miles southwest of the compound.
"They painted here and put on the roof," said Martha Meyer, who works in K and B Oil, a small convenience store and gas station.
"I think they just mostly did odd jobs. The kids worked out on the ranches and stuff," Meyer said.
Sayer, who worked as a carpenter, said life at the compound sometimes called Strong City was hard, although he recalls some happy times.
"There was a lot of going out and walking and being alone," he said. There were no TVs—although there were computers. Jewelry and makeup were banned, as was meat.
Raised a Seventh-day Adventist and drawn to Bent's offshoot church when his parents became involved, Sayer said at first it was "normal in my eyes."
"Basically, whatever the Seventh-day Adventists taught, that's what we did," he said. But he said Bent, whom he described as quiet, nice and smart, got weirder around 1999.
"He was claiming to be God," Sayer said.
Sayer—whose mother and sister live at the compound—believes the three children seized by the state were the only minors there. He said Bent told families with small children to leave in 2005 because some youngsters were disobedient—playing with toys, for example, which was not allowed.
He said the community, which numbered close to 80 people when it moved to New Mexico from Sand Point, Idaho, is down to about 50.
"They're in a strong city," he said. "They're in their own heaven on earth. They say they're on the sea of glass. Their lives are transparent. ... They do what the Father wants them to do."
Sayer said Bent has told him God talks to everybody at the ranch. "I can't judge it," Sayer said. "Every person's got their own relationship with God."
This article was found at:
http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_9114625