Mormons jailed for child sex assaults
By Stewart
Tendler: Crime Correspondent 11/27/99
BRISTOL, ENGLAND
-- Four LDS Church members in Bristol, England have
been convicted of sexually assaulting children in their congregations over the
past 17 years. A two-year police investigation, started after one of the victims
met an LDS Church member on the street and remembered abuse he had "blacked
out" as a child.
Martin Hayward, 45, Kenneth Gunton, 72, Jeremy Brown, 29, and Murray Collins,
51, have all been convicted and given various sentences for their crimes. Brown
was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl during a church
"confession" according to the Times.
Collins' abuse was first reported 17 years before the investigation began,
according to the Times, when a victim went to local Church authorities, leading
to repeated Church disciplinary proceedings against Collins. The Times claims
that Collins was "allowed to keep his position of power in the
church," despite repeatedly abusing children. The police were never
notified.
Local police say that their investigation was also frustrated because the LDS
Church refused to provide documents relevant to the case. "We had no
co-operation whatsoever from the Mormon church. They refused to give us records
voluntarily and indicated that if there was any attempt to obtain them they
would vociferously defend any legal action we took," said Detective Chief
Inspector Dave Johnson, who led the investigation. An LDS Church spokeswoman
explained that the records were confidential and covered by priest-penitent
privilege, "Church policy is that we will
never discuss individual cases. That is the matter between the person
disciplined, the church and the Lord. The church would always comply with the
law of the land."
In addition to the four LDS Church members convicted, two others, Police
officers Sergeant Mark Lewis, 36, and PC Anthony Henley, 27, both of whom are
also members of the LDS Church, were acquitted of the charges against them.
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