Showing posts with label sexual exploitation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual exploitation. Show all posts

5 May 2011

Canadian Bishop who oversaw historic abuse settlement pleads guilty to importing child porn, asks judge to jail him



Canada.com    -   May 4, 2011

Former Catholic bishop requests jail in child porn case

BY ANDREW SEYMOUR, POSTMEDIA NEWS



OTTAWA — In an extraordinary move, a former Catholic bishop who admitted to importing graphic images and videos of child sexual abuse asked a judge to jail him Wednesday, voluntarily beginning a sentence that will last at least a year.

Raymond Lahey's detention followed an admission by the man who once oversaw a historic Nova Scotia child sex-abuse settlement that he had tried to bring 588 child pornography images along with 60 videos and numerous stories featuring themes of humiliation, degradation, torture and slavery of young boys into the country following a trip abroad in September 2009.

Prosecutors said Lahey, 70, was travelling alone when he landed at the Ottawa airport on Sept. 15, 2009, on a flight from London, England. His passport showed he had visited Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Germany since 2005.

Lahey was calm, friendly and forthcoming when he approached a customs agent, but his demeanour soon changed when she repeatedly asked if he had any electronic devices, including a laptop computer, according to an agreed statement of facts.

"He was somewhat nervous, quiet, hesitant and avoided eye contact," said Crown prosecutor David Elhadad.

Lahey was sent for a secondary inspection, where another customs agent discovered three images of naked young males, including some engaged in sexual acts. He was also carrying a small blue bag containing "personal sex toys," according to Elhadad.

An Ottawa police investigator then found about a dozen more images of pre-pubescent young males, including one as young as eight. Some were engaged in sex acts with adults.

At the time of his initial arrest, Lahey denied having an interest in child pornography. However, he admitted he had an attraction to young males, particularly around the age of 20 or 21, but also those in their 30s and 40s.

Lahey's computer was seized and he was allowed to leave. He stepped down from his job as bishop in Antigonish, N.S., the next day. A Canada-wide warrant for his arrest was issued a month later.

Ottawa police Det. Andrew Thompson testified that a forensic examination of Lahey's laptop included a review of his Internet searches for terms used by those interested in child pornography. Lahey searched for "Lolita" once, but searched the word "twink," slang for a young-looking gay male, 1,182 times, Thompson testified.

Thompson testified that Lahey's browsing history revealed visits to three websites featuring images that were "close to child pornography," showing boys in their early teens.

The facts were read after a stone-faced Lahey, his arms crossed in front of him, entered his plea in a clear voice.

Lahey could have remained free on bail, but his lawyer Michael Edelson said his client felt deep and profound remorse and wanted to start serving his sentence immediately.

Lahey is facing a mandatory minimum sentence of a year in jail, although Crown prosecutors indicated they might seek a longer term. It was not clear whether Lahey might try to seek extra credit for the time spent in jail prior to his actual sentencing, although the Crown said they expected the time would be considered on a one-for-one basis.

Prosecutors asked Ontario Court Justice Kent Kirkland to order a pre-sentence report for Lahey, who was described by assistant Crown attorney Mihael Cole as a "troubled man."

The judge declined, however, after Edelson argued that prosecutors had intimate details about Lahey's background from an extensive psychiatric and sexual-behaviour assessment conducted by Dr. John Bradford from the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. Edelson also submitted character references from 11 people who knew Lahey well.

"We have nothing to hide," Edelson said.

Elhadad said the Crown intends to challenge portions of Bradford's report and wants to know what kind of risk Lahey might pose once he is released.

Prosecutors also argued that a probation officer could talk to those supervising Lahey.

"A bishop has one supervisor: the Pope," Edelson said. "The Pope is not going to be taking a call from the probation supervisor."

Following Lahey's plea, the Vatican pledged it would take action against Lahey.

The Vatican said it was considering "appropriate disciplinary or penal" action against Lahey — who retains the rank of a bishop emeritus in the Church — and condemned child sexual exploitation of all kinds.

In addition to the criminal charges, Lahey is also accused in a civil lawsuit of sexual abuse.

In a statement of claim filed in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Todd Boland alleged Lahey fondled him over his clothes, and that the abuse happened on numerous occasions over several years. The abuse is alleged to have happened in the mid-1980s when Boland was a resident at the infamous Mount Cashel orphanage.

A date for the sentencing hearing is expected to be set May 26.

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Canada.com  -  May 4, 2011

Vatican pledges action against Canadian ex-bishop

by AFP


VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Wednesday it would take action against a Canadian ex-bishop who confessed to child pornography charges and who is being prosecuted for sexual abuse.

"The Catholic Church condemns sexual exploitation of all kind, in particular when minors are targeted," said a statement released by the Vatican's press service.

It said it was considering "appropriate disciplinary or penal" action against Raymond Lahey, 70, who resigned in September 2009 as bishop of the diocese of Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

He was charged with possessing and importing child pornography following an investigation after a search at the Ottawa airport of his laptop computer uncovered graphic photographs of males who authorities suspected could be as young as eight years old. Sentencing will be announced later.

Lahey also faces accusations in a civil suit of sexually abusing an orphanage resident in the early 1980s.

The Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John's, Newfoundland was closed in 1990 after it was revealed that staff had systematically abused some 300 residents over several decades.

Pope Benedict XVI has met with victims of child-molesting priests three times since 2008, in Australia, the United States and most recently in Malta last year, when he expressed his "shame and sorrow" over the scourge.


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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 15:02
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22 Apr 2011

Book investigating Mormon polygamy suggests prohibition enables sect leaders to commit sex crimes



Religion Dispatches April 22, 2011

40,000 Fundamentalists Can't Be Wrong: Investigating Mormon Polygamy


Interview with  Sanjiv Bhattacharya, author of  Secrets & Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy  Soft Skull (2011)



What inspired you to write Secrets & Wives: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy? What sparked your interest?

I’m one of those unbelievers who’s obsessed with religion, so moving to America, from England, was a bargain. The Bush presidency was underway, the Christian right were on the march and the country was going down the tubes so fast you could hear a sucking sound.

But I was only peripherally aware of Mormons. I remember the polygamist Tom Green appearing on Jerry Springer once, with his harem, but it wasn’t till Jon Krakauer’s book,Under The Banner of Heaven, came out that I started paying attention. And right on cue, Warren Jeffs, the prophet of the FLDS, went off the deep end in epic style — he banned laughter and the color red and set about building a giant temple in Texas with the FBI in hot pursuit. There are few things I find more entertaining than a cult leader going clear off the reservation.

I’ve always been drawn to outsiders and fringe groups — people who stand apart from the mainstream. So the mere existence of a subculture of 40,000 fundamentalists living outside the law in America struck me as tremendously exciting. Not to mention the fact that their faith is American — it could scarcely be more so — and yet they live in hiding, worshipping at secret churches with scores of secret wives. I couldn’t resist.

I wrote a few articles and made a documentary, all of which focussed on Warren Jeffs and the FLDS, as most media coverage still does. But it soon became clear that the FLDS was just one group. There were 30,000 other polygamists out there — a broad diaspora of smaller churches and independents that remained discreetly marbled into the populations of Utah and Arizona especially. What were they hiding? Was hiding really necessary? Would they open up to me if I asked nicely? That’s how Secrets & Wives began.

What’s the most important take-home message for readers?

There are a few. That Utah is bubbling over with self-declared prophets and messiahs — the Mormon religion is strong potion. That the illegality of polygamy is a boon to cult leaders who wish to control their flocks and commit sex crimes with impunity.

And most of all, that not all polygamists are alike. Attitudes seem to have shifted lately from suspicion to sympathy — many now see polygamists as victims of persecution who ought to be left alone. But this is as insufficient as the opposite view — that polygamists are sinister deviants who must be prosecuted. The truth is more complex. Certainly, some groups like The Order, did strike me as sinister — the practice of incest, for instance, or of changing surnames to mask identity, not to mention the allegations of child labor and underage marriages. No question about it — there are shocking stories of abuse within fundamentalism. But equally, some groups are comparatively benign and more inclined to open up to outsiders.

I believe it’s time to decriminalize polygamy and bring these people out of the darkness. Too many awful things happen in the dark.

Anything you had to leave out?

Some stories were cut for length. The story of a liberal businesswoman from the Bay Area for instance, who fell in love with a younger fundamentalist carpenter and became his second wife. Her mom was a hippy and now she lives in an exclusively polygamist community in Arizona. That’s one of them.

What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic?

That polygamy is somehow drab or dismal — a bunch of oppressed women in prairie dresses doing household chores and suckling babies, often at the same time. But that’s not the case. (Not completely anyway — there’s bound to be some oppression and suckling going on.) The truth is, polygamy is intense. It’s a cauldron. Much stranger and richer than Big Love or Sister Wives.

This is a world in which men converse with God, the stakes are eternal, the apocalypse is imminent and no one “out there” can be trusted. It’s all belief and longing and paranoia. All the dials are turned up to 11 — there’s more risk, more conflict, more drama. It’s a world where a few men have over 100 children a piece. One guy has over 250. Drab doesn’t get a look in.

I was often shocked on my travels. Shocked I never imagined that polygamists would get me drunk on margaritas, for example. Or that fundamentalist children would have started a Bollywood movie club. Or that way out in the Moab desert there is a polygamous community that inhabits a giant rock powered by solar panels. For all their faults — which are many — fundamentalists have a point when they say that Mormonism lost its most colorful characters when it abandoned polygamy.

Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing?

As a topic, polygamy appears to have a very broad appeal, so I’m hoping Secrets & Wives will too. I wrote it for anyone who’s interested in American religion, Mormonism in particular, the religion of Mitt Romney and Glenn Beck; in how modern polygamists actually live and why; in prophets and followers and the dynamics of cults; in child brides and women’s rights; and in how a subculture of zealots might respond to an English atheist with a funny name asking deeply personal questions.

Are you hoping to just inform readers? Give them pleasure? Piss them off?

Pissing people off was never a mission objective, though I doubt Mormons will be rushing out to buy copies for their friends. But to inform and entertain? Absolutely.

This is a first-person exploration of polygamous groups and the issues they raise, and I always thought of the reader as my traveling companion as I went around Utah knocking on doors. Sometimes things didn’t go according to plan. While some groups invited me to stay over for weeks on end, others threw me out into the street. And occasionally, I would stumble across some drama or intrigue that sucked me right in.

But however the adventure unfolded, that’s how it is told — I stayed true to the rollercoaster. And that goes for tone too. Polygamy is certainly rich in heartbreaking stories and serious issues, but there were also funny moments along the way. So I’m actually hoping that readers will laugh uproariously in some places and weep sweet tears in others. And world peace would be nice.

What alternate title would you give the book?

We toyed with titles and tag lines till the cows came home, but I think we chose wisely in the end. Here are a few options that didn’t make the cut. To Be A God: The Secret Lives of Polygamists, When One Won't Do: The Hidden World of Mormon Polygamy, First You Get The Wives, Then You Get The Planet: The Things I Learned About Polygamists During My Summer In Utah, and Mormon Polygamy: A Gentile Investigates.

How do you feel about the cover?

I love it. I feel very lucky. Adrian Kinloch is the designer and he’s managed to perfectly evoke a hidden people, a life in the shadows. There’s a wife standing there but we can’t see her, her identity is concealed, she’s a secret. And look at those dramatic skies ahead of her. That’s polygamy — a gathering storm in the desert.

Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, for obvious reasons. But also Jeff Sharlet’sThe Family - impeccably researched, expertly constructed and of lasting importance. Simply the best and most frightening expose of the Christian Right in America. I’m also envious of Sam Harris whose book, The End of Faith, was a brilliant blast of dissent at a time when religion appeared to be on the rampage in America.

What’s your next book?

There are a few ideas cooking but I don’t want to say too much. I might be an atheist but I believe in jinxing.

Sanjiv Bhattacharya is a writer and editor from England, now living in Los Angeles. He blogs here.



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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 15:31
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4 Apr 2011

Evidence in Canadian polygamy case shows Mormon leader trafficked his daughters and other child brides to US



CBC News - Canada March 31, 2011

B.C. polygamist linked to child bride, court told

by The Canadian Press



One of the leaders of a polygamous B.C. sect has been linked in court documents to more than half a dozen cross-border marriages involving children.

In at least one case, Winston Blackmore is listed in the documents as the husband of a child bride. In two others, he is alleged to have taken his own daughters across the border to be wed.

A B.C. judge is examining the constitutionality of Canada's polygamy laws, and the case has already heard of 13 cases in which girls from Blackmore's community of Bountiful, B.C., were taken to the U.S. to marry American men between 2004 and 2006. A 14th marriage also included in that list involved an American girl allegedly married to Bountiful's other leader, James Oler.

Those cases all appeared to involve Oler's side of the divided community. Bountiful has been bitterly split for nearly a decade, with half the community following Oler and the other half aligned with Blackmore.

But an affidavit filed with the court Thursday, prepared by a Texas Ranger who examined documents seized from a sister polygamous commune in the U.S., implicates Blackmore in several marriages between 1990 and 2004.

Three Canadian marriages cited

Nick Hanna was asked by B.C. government lawyers to search for marriages that "likely involve Canadians."

His affidavit lists a total of 17 additional marriages — 14 performed in the U.S. and three in Canada. Hanna does not specify in each case whether the child brides or husbands were Canadian, nor does he list the girls' ages, but he does identify each as a "child."

The affidavit says church records indicate Blackmore was married in Sandy, Utah, on Feb. 20, 1999, to a girl only identified as Child U.

One of his daughters was married in Sandy, Utah, on Oct. 20, 1998, and another was married in Colorado City, Ariz., on April 18, 2000, the document says. A third of Blackmore's daughters is listed as being married in Lister, B.C. — the larger municipality in which Bountiful is located — on April 29, 2000.

In three other marriages — two in the U.S. and one in Canada — Blackmore is listed in church records as a witness.

The court has already heard testimony from one of Blackmore's former wives, Ruth Lane, an American woman who was married to him when she was 15. Lane's younger sister was also married to Blackmore a short time later, Lane told the court. It's not clear whether either of those marriages are among those listed in the affidavit.

In February, when the court first heard allegations of cross-border marriages involving Bountiful girls as young as 12, the RCMP announced a criminal investigation.

At the time, Blackmore attempted to distance himself from the allegations.

"If they're investigating the story we read about, I think they should look into it and see what's happening there," Blackmore told The Canadian Press. "If that is a fact, I'm really disturbed about that myself."

A request for comment sent to Blackmore via email wasn't immediately returned Thursday.

International treaties

The first set of alleged cross-border marriages involved two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old who were married to polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, the self-described prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, to which most residents of Bountiful belong.

The additional marriages revealed Thursday include two additional marriages to Jeffs in Hildale, Utah, in April 1999.

Jeffs is now in a Texas jail awaiting trial on charges of sexual assault and bigamy related to allegations he had sex with two children, one under 14 and the other under 17.

Blackmore and Oler were each charged in 2009 with practicing polygamy, but the charges were later thrown out of court, prompting the B.C. reference case.

The trafficking of young girls is among a long list of harms the provincial and federal governments say is inherently caused by polygamy. The governments also say polygamy subjugates women, creates child brides and teenage pregnancies, leads to sexual and physical abuse, limits the education of children, and forces boys and young men to be cast out of polygamous communities.

On Thursday, federal government lawyer Keith Reimer urged a B.C. Supreme Court judge to uphold the law, citing a number of international human-rights treaties that he said require Canada to outlaw polygamy.

Reimer said the international bodies involved have consistently said the treaties require polygamy to be banned.

"Those treaty bodies have called for polygamy to be, in their words, 'definitely abolished wherever it continues to exist,' and have urged that it be discouraged and prohibited," Reimer said during his closing arguments.

"There's a strong consensus under international human rights law that states are obligated to take all appropriate measures to eliminate forms of discrimination, including polygamy, against women."



This article was found at:



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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 10:53
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3 Apr 2011

Woman who helped put her mum and Satanic cult leader in jail for ritual sex abuse of children describes the horrors



The Sun  -  UK        March 31, 2011

Satanic cult boss convinced me he could make tsunamis happen

By JENNA SLOAN


HOLDING her daughter tightly, Gemma Marling whispers "I love you" to three-year-old Emily.

It is something she tells the little girl several times each day.

For Gemma, 21, knows from bitter experience how important a mother's unconditional love and support is.
Earlier this month she gave evidence in court which resulted in her own mother, 42-year-old Jacqueline Marling, being jailed for 12 years for a series of sickening sex attacks on her own daughter and other children.

Gemma's evidence also helped to jail Jacqueline's depraved lover, Colin Batley - a Satanic cult leader.

And one day she will have to break the horrifying news to Emily that Batley is her father.

Gemma said: "Now the trial is over the reality has hit me. I know I'm never going to have a mum.

"People take their parents for granted but I'd do anything to have a mum and dad."

Gemma's ordeal started at the age of eight when Jacqueline moved the family from their home in east London to Kidwelly, a town in Carmarthenshire, west Wales.

They settled into a nondescript semi in Clos Yr Onnen - Welsh for Ash Tree Close - but behind the house's bland exterior was a Satanic nightmare orchestrated by depraved Colin Batley, who lived next door.

Gemma said: "My mum knew Colin in London but I didn't meet him until we moved to Wales. One night I was in bed and my mum got me up and took me downstairs.

"Colin was sitting in the living room. There was a candle flickering and I couldn't see him properly. It was like a horror movie."

Jacqueline then performed a sex act on Batley in front of her terrified daughter. Gemma recalls: "Colin said to me, 'One day you'll start your periods and I'll have you.'

"After that I was terrified, but Colin didn't touch me again for three years, although he was constantly in and out of our house. My mum did what he said and so did we - you follow what your mum does. She's meant to look after you."

Batley was an ardent disciple of occult and Satanist writer Aleister Crowley, and styled himself a cult "lord". He built up a harem of adoring female followers who lived in the close.

They included his bisexual wife Elaine, who was jailed for eight years for her part in the abuse, Jacqueline, and prostitute Shelly Millar, who was sentenced to five years.

All were tattooed with the symbol of Egyptian god Horus and followed Batley's warped theories promoting rape and promiscuity.

When Gemma was 11 Batley initiated her into the cult.

She said: "Colin raped me for the first time. It was a sunny summer day and I'd come inside to escape the heat when he forced himself on me.

"He then visited every night for the next eight weeks, as he was decorating our house.

"He said the sex was a test. If I passed, I'd go to the palace where he lived.

"I feel a mug now for believing it but what else would I know?

"If I didn't do it I was told I'd go to hell, where I'd suffer a lifetime of pain with no sleep or respite.

"I was too scared to tell anyone what was going on. I didn't know it was happening to anyone else. I thought I was on my own."

When Gemma turned 14 her mother began to join in the sex abuse, and when she was 16 Jacqueline even filmed her having sex with a boy of 15.

Batley ruled the cult with his encyclopaedic knowledge of The Book Of The Law, a text written by his hero Crowley, and used twisted logic to keep control.

Gemma recalled: "Colin said he made the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 happen. He said he'd done it because we had broken so many rules and the gods were angry.

"On the day he was sentenced, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan happened, and I instantly thought Colin had done it. I know now that's not possible but he was very good at placing things and convincing you that you'd caused a disaster. I was totally brainwashed."

At 17 Gemma became pregnant with Batley's baby. She said: "When I found out it was the first time I'd cried in six years. I didn't want a baby - I couldn't bring a child into that kind of hell."

But the cult leader forced her to keep the child, saying the baby belonged to the gods. Gemma explained: "I said I wanted an abortion but I was called a murderer. When I was pregnant I attempted suicide twice.

"I cut myself and took an overdose. I just didn't want to be there. Colin found out and said the gods had saved me."

Gemma was 18 when she gave birth in February 2008. She recalled: "After I had Emily I felt like I had something worth living for. She gave me my life back."

But when Emily was three months old Batley forced Gemma to work as a prostitute in a Bristol brothel for four days a week. At this point she could take no more.

She and another cult member who also wanted to leave contacted relatives on Facebook using the internet in a public library.

Gemma said: "I made sure I had my passport and our birth certificates, and we were picked up at 2.30am on May 22, 2009. I left with a baby and a suitcase full of nappies and clothes, and I haven't been back or contacted them since. I hadn't seen or spoken to them until I saw them in court."

After escaping, Gemma traced relatives in Essex, who she has now moved in with. With their support she reported Batley to the police and the cult members were arrested.

Gemma gave her evidence to the court via videolink, and earlier this month 48-year-old Batley was jailed for life with a minimum of 11 years at Swansea Crown Court on 11 charges of rape, six serious sexual assaults, three indecent assaults and causing a child to have sex.

Judge Paul Thomas said Batley had created a "sick little kingdom" and was a "danger to children".

Gemma's mother Jacqueline was convicted of aiding and abetting rape, causing prostitution, indecency with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Gemma said: "The last time I saw her was at the sentencing.

"She snarled, 'What are you doing here?' and I broke down. As I'm a mum myself it makes what she did seem even more awful.

"Now my focus is on Emily, I want to give her everything I didn't have and I want her to be happy."


This article was found at:



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Five Wales Satanists guilty of extreme ritual abuse and rape of children, survivor tells of childhood horrors



Articles and reports on Ritual Satanic Abuse by Professor Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Alberta: 

Diabolic Debates: A Reply to David Frankfurter and J. S. La Fontaine," Religion 24 (1994): 135-188. 

"Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse" Part One: "Possible Judeo-Christian Influences." Religion 23 no.3 (July, 1993): 229-241.

"Deviant Scripturalism and Ritual Satanic Abuse" Part Two: "Possible Mormon, Magic, and Pagan Influences." Religion 23 no.4 (October, 1993): 355-367. 

Expert Report by Stephen A. Kent

October 20, 1997 ASSESSMENT OF THE SATANIC ABUSE ALLEGATIONS IN THE [name deleted] CASE Stephen A. Kent (Ph.D.) Professor Department of Sociology University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4 

***************
An Analysis of Ritualistic and Religion-Related Child Abuse Allegation 
BetteL. Bottoms, Phillip R. Shaver and Gail S. Goodman, Law and Human Behavior, Vol. 20, No.1, (Feb. 1996) pp. 1-34 



German woman born into Satanic cult says she endured years of torture and rape


Anglican bishop claims devil worship widespread in boarding schools in mostly Christian Kenya


Russia bans Satanic sect that indoctrinated and abused secondary school students


Prosecutors say man killed 8- and 10-year-old stepdaughters as part of a spell or ritual from "TheSatanic Bible." 



Posted by Perry Bulwer at 14:00
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24 Mar 2011

Married Iowa youth pastor prayed as he sexually abused teen boys to spiritually purify them


The Daily Nonpareil  -  Council Bluffs, Iowa   March 17, 2011

Girouex: I helped men gain 'sexual purity'

By Chad Nation, News Editor


A former Council Bluffs youth pastor allegedly told the teens he is accused of sexually exploiting that he was trying to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God.”

Brent Girouex, 31, told Council Bluffs police detectives in February that starting in 2007 he had sexual contact with four young men who he knew while he was a youth pastor for Victory Fellowship Church.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said the number has risen since Girouex first talked with police on Feb. 16. Now, Wilber said there are at least eight people who have come forward.

Girouex was arrested on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist earlier this month and has been released on a $30,000 bond. He is due back in court on April 21.

The Rev. Lonnie Parton of Victory Fellowship Church said church leaders were stunned when four young men came forward with allegations against Girouex in February.

Once Parton learned of the allegations, he confronted Girouex and told him he needed to go to the police and make a confession. He did so on Feb. 16.

Court documents indicated Girouex told investigators the most sexual contact he had was with one teen over a four-year period, starting when the boy was 14 years old. Girouex speculated that he had “mutual” sexual contact with the teen between “25 and 50 times” over the four-year period.

When investigators spoke to the teen, who is now an adult, he told them the number was between 50 and 100 times.

Girouex allegedly said as a youth pastor he felt it was his duty “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him.”

Several additional victims also spoke with detectives.

At least three others – who were teenagers when the incidents occurred – told investigators the events happened at Girouex’s home. All three said they were at the house to be helped with “sexual purity.”

Another man said he was 23 years old and having problems with his wife when Girouex wanted to “help him with his issues.” The man alleged Girouex pulled down his pants and began to touch his genitals.

Yet another man said that over a five-week period when he was 20 years old, Girouex slowly evolved sexually contacting him from touching him over his clothes to oral sex.

Court documents stated Girouex said during all of the incidents, it was only about “helping the victims gain sexual purity.”

“When they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind,” he allegedly told detectives.

While there are at least eight people who have come forward, Wilber said investigators are still following leads to see if there are more victims in the case.

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CNN - March 15, 2011

Former youth pastor faces 60 charges of sexual exploitation


OMAHA, IA (CNN) - An Iowa community is in shock after a youth pastor was accused of having sex with several young men in his congregation.

Brent Girouex is facing 60 counts of felony sexual exploitation.

Court documents show four alleged victims came forward to the church's pastor. The young men explained how Girouex talked them into having sexual contact with him by explaining to them they would gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."

Church leadership told Girouex to turn himself in, which he did on Feb. 16, telling police he wanted to confess what he had done.

Girouex told investigators he engaged in sex acts with a 14-year-old victim at the time 25 to 50 times over a four-year period, all the while praying while they two had sexual contact.

Girouex joined the church in 2006 as an unpaid volunteer in the youth department. Pastor Patron said the church has a policy of running background checks on all people who work with the church's kids, but Girouex's came up clean.

The county attorney worries there may be other victims that have not yet come forward.

Officials said Girouex was released from custody after posting bail. He is due back in court next month.

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KETV 7 ABC   -  Omaha   March 14, 2011

Ex-Pastor Faces 60 Sex Charges

Former Iowa Youth Pastor Out On Bond


COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa --Pottawattamie County officials said former Council Bluffs youth pastor, Brent Girouex, 31, is out of jail Monday night after he surrendered to authorities last month.

Court officials said Girouex posted bond on a $30,000 bail. He's due in court April 21.

Police said Girouex confessed to engaging in sex acts with at least six boys and men. In one instance, Girouex told police he had sexual contact with a teenage boy 25 to 50 times over a four-year period. The boy was 14 years old when the sex acts began, according to court documents.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber said his office is now working with eight alleged victims.

Wilber said Girouex has been charged with 60 counts of sexual exploitation.

Lonnie Parton, a Victory Fellowship Church pastor, said they were caught by surprise when four young men came forward with the allegations in early February. They told him that Girouex talked them into having sexual contact with him by explaining to them this was to gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."

Parton said church leadership told Girouex to turn himself in, which he did on Feb. 16.

Parton said the church has a policy of running background checks on "all people who work with the church's kids" and Girouex's background check came up clean when he came to the church in 2006 as a volunteer in the youth department.

Wilber said Girouex told police that both he and his alleged victims were praying while they had sexual contact.

"In my line of work, I get to see the worst of the worst, and this is pretty bad," Wilber said.

Given the allegations, Wilber said he is worried that there may be more alleged victims that have not yet come forward.

"The only way that I can truly say this won't happen to somebody else is for us to get a full picture of what we've got, and then we can present that full picture to the court," Wilber said.


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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 14:43
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23 Mar 2011

Lawyer fighting Canadian polygamy law says it violates religious freedom, need new law against forced marriage



The Province   -  BC, Canada      March 20, 2011

Prosecute abuse, not polygamy: Lawyer

Child rape and sexual exploitation offences have not been followed up on, court documents claim

By Keith Fraser, The Province


A lawyer appointed to represent parties seeking to scrap the polygamy law has rapped the authorities for failing to prosecute cases of child rape and sexual exploitation.

And George Macintosh suggests in written submissions filed in B.C. Supreme Court that a new criminal law to crack down on forced marriages should be enacted.

In a 304-page submission, Macintosh argues that the polygamy law breaches religious freedoms, is ineffective and should be struck down.

He admits that evidence of "serious abuse" was uncovered at the polygamy trial but says that that has nothing to do with the law itself.

Macintosh argues that the proper response to the abuses is for the authorities to build more bridges to polygamous communities such as Bountiful.

Insularity in the small, rural fundamentalist Mormon community is a problem, and it's exacerbated by the law, he said.

The attorney-general's ministry has had "damning proof" of child rape and sexual exploitation for years and yet no charges have been laid, he said.

"With respect, the failure to prosecute these abuses is wholly unacceptable," says the court document. "When there is such compelling evidence, prosecutions must proceed."

Macintosh, an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, also suggested that the practice of arranged marriages in communities like the FLDS should be criminalized.

"There are stories of girls and boys being woken in the night and married within hours, sometimes to someone they hardly knew, sometimes to someone it appears they did not wish to marry," he said.

"The amicus, not surprisingly, finds this evidence gravely disturbing."

Macintosh said there was no current law in the Criminal Code to address the problem of forced marriages.

But he noted some countries such as Belgium and Norway have passed legislation to deal with the problem.

The submissions came a few weeks after the attorney- general's ministry introduced fresh evidence of child trafficking from Bountiful across the border to the United States. The RCMP is investigating.

In his submissions, Macintosh said that the polygamy law constitutes "grave" violations of freedoms of religion and association.

The "astonishing overbreadth" of the law in criminalizing all polygamous relationships regardless of the circumstances is probably the "starkest example of stereotyping" by any criminal law in Canada, he said.

The issue of whether the polygamy law is constitutional was referred to the B.C. Supreme Court after two leaders in Bountiful had polygamy charges stayed in 2009.

Final, oral arguments in the case are expected to get underway in court on March 28.


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Posted by Perry Bulwer at 12:22
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