Tag Archives: child abuse

New Hampshire Pastor Indicted On Child Sex Charges

Manchester’s ABC affiliate reports: A former New Hampshire minister is accused of strangulation and sexual assault and is being investigated for similar charges in Florida. Ossipee police said at the time of the allegations, Kevin Straughan, 67, was the head minister of Agape Ministries Church in Ossipee and Moultonborough. Straughan has been indicted on several charges, including four counts of …

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Oregon Cult Pastor Found Guilty On Child Sex Charges

Oregon Live reports: A Multnomah County jury on Friday found a pastor of a religious group guilty of sexually abusing a former member when she was a child – the third time a jury has reached a verdict against Michael Sperou. Though he was found guilty of sexually abusing one victim, six other women came forward years ago with their …

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Ohio Catholic Priest Found Guilty On Child Sex Charges

The Mansfield News Journal reports: Guilty on all five counts was the verdict Friday in the federal sex-trafficking trial of the Rev. Michael Jude Zacharias, a Roman Catholic priest who has led parishes in Mansfield and Fremont. The jury’s decision was announced a little before 5 p.m. Friday. Zacharias, 56, was found guilty of all five counts of sex trafficking, …

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Baltimore Priest Resigns From College Hospital Board After Being Named In Archdiocese’s Sex Abuse Coverup

The Baltimore Sun reports: A Catholic priest resigned from his position on the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center’s board of directors after The Baltimore Sun revealed his role in helping to cover-up child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Monsignor Richard Woy, a longtime board member at the Towson hospital, delivered his resignation letter Saturday to Board …

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Church School Teacher Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Memphis’s CBS affiliate reports: A Mississippi educator was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of molestation – touching a child for lustful purposes, two counts of sexual battery and one count of unnatural intercourse. Daniel Paul Harris, 44, of Olive Branch was given a bond of $950,000 on the charges, according to DeSoto County Jail records. Harris and his …

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New Charges Allege NC Cop/Youth Pastor Held “Nude Drinking Parties” With Church Minors And Played Porn

The Charlotte Observer reports: A former North Carolina police officer now faces additional sex and alcohol charges involving minors in York County, after officials from a Fort Mill church called deputies last month to report the allegations, according to law enforcement and court documents. Erickson Douglas Lee, 25, of Charlotte, was charged with four sex crimes Tuesday by York County …

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NC Cop/Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Charlotte’s ABC affiliate reports: Records show a Cornelius police officer arrested for child sex-related crimes is accused of committing them while acting as a church youth leader. According to his arrest warrant out of York County, the allegations against Erickson Douglas Lee were for incidents reported between December 2020 and July 2022. The crimes all appear to have happened at …

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Catholic School Teacher Arrested On Child Sex Charges

CTV News reports: In December 2022, an elementary Catholic teacher was charged with making, possessing and distributing child pornography. At the time, police said the accused used various personas like “Dan Forest” to lure children online. Investigators also said that in February 2022, the accused met with a 14-year-old girl in Brampton and allegedly sexually assaulted her. The suspect, identified …

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MI Catholic Priest Pleads Guilty To Child Sex Charges

The Detroit News reports: A former Michigan priest accused of abusing a child in the 1980s has pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct, state officials announced Tuesday. Vincent DeLorenzo, 84, formerly of Flint, was among the first five priests whom Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged in 2019 as part of an ongoing clergy sexual abuse investigation. His …

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VA Youth Pastor Gets Seven Years On Child Sex Charges

Virginia Beach’s NBC affiliate reports: A former Norfolk church youth group leader was sentenced to seven years in prison for the sexual abuse of a minor. Charles Willoughby III, 39 was convicted to seven years in prison for traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. Willoughby routinely groomed minor teen girls who were part …

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Christian Brand Founder Gets 35 Years For Child Sex

The watchdog site Church Leaders reports: Jesse Joshua Aceves, who founded the Christian clothing brand The Way and had been active in the Christian hip-hop music scene, was convicted last month of “numerous” charges of child molestation. The 36-year-old, who was arrested in California back in 2020, has been sentenced to 35 years in a state prison. According to police …

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Catholic School Teacher Arrested For Sex With Student

The Des Moines Register reports: A Dowling Catholic High School teacher has been arrested for an alleged sexual relationship with a student. Police arrested Kristen Gantt, 36, on Friday on two counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee. Authorities allege Gantt, who was employed as an English teacher at Dowling in West Des Moines, engaged in an inappropriate sexual …

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Church Music Teacher Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Colorado Springs’ NBC affiliate reports: A Colorado Springs man has been arrested on sexual assault charges according to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and detectives are looking for more victims. According to deputies with the SVU unit of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office 58-year-old Robert Henry Gordon was arrested on Wednesday, on charges of sexual assault on a …

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Nevada Pastor And Wife Indicted On Child Sex Charges

Las Vegas’s CBS affiliate reports: A North Las Vegas pastor and his wife have been indicted by the Clark County Grand Jury accused of sexual assault and child abuse on or between 2012, and 2014, the Clark County District Attorney’s Office announced on Monday. Bobby Cornealius Smith, a pastor at New Beginnings Church in Las Vegas, was accused of sexually …

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Georgia Pastor Gets 25 Years On Child Sex Charges

Savannah’s ABC affiliate reports: A former Savannah pastor will serve 25 years in prison and life on probation for child molestation and statutory rape. Alfonza McClendon Sr. was convicted of molesting two children between 2013 and 2017. The molestation happened while McClendon was pastor of the First Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church. He will have to register as a sex offender …

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California Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

The Modesto Bee reports: A Modesto man who has served in a leadership role over student ministries at his church has been charged with molesting a family member. Michael Sasser, 40, was charged last month with forcible sexual penetration, continual sexual abuse of a child and lewd and lascivious acts with a child. According to the criminal complaint, the first …

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Bible College Ex-Student Leader Arrested For Child Sex

The Roys Report reports: A former student union president at a prominent Christian Bible school in Alberta, Canada, has been arrested and charged with sexual assault of multiple minors, after a two-year investigation. Derek Taplin, 43, allegedly abused four underage victims while he was student union president at Prairie Bible Institute, now Prairie College, in Three Hills, Alberta, from 2002 …

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California Youth Pastor Arrested On Child Sex Charges

Santa Barbara’s ABC affiliate reports: Former youth pastor Jeffery York, 53, at New Beginnings Community Church in Nipomo was arrested Wednesday for child molestation and sexual abuse over a three-year period, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office. SLO Sheriff’s arrested the 53-year-old from Portland following an investigation into York for child molestation of a male victim in …

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Indiana Pastor Charged With Child Sex Trafficking

Indianapolis’s Fox affiliate reports: An Indianapolis pastor who ran a non-profit to feed homeless people is now accused of rape and offering a 17-year-old $1000 to have sex with him. Tyree Coleman, 43, is charged with the promotion of child sex trafficking, rape, promotion of human sex trafficking and two counts of intimidation. According to court documents, a 17-year-old came …

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CA Pastor Convicted On 18 Felony Child Sex Charges

Los Angeles’ NBC affiliate reports: A retired Orange County pastor has been convicted of sexually abusing two young girls he is related to, according to court records obtained on Thursday. Jose Andres Lopez, 70, of Mission Viejo, was convicted Wednesday of 18 felony sexual assault charges dating as far back as 1991 through 2020. On Aug. 21, 2020, one of …

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