A small Christian sect that for decades was little noticed by the outside world has found itself riven by a very public child sex abuse scandal.
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Pam Walton leaves a library with her container including photographs and lists of"Two by Twos" conventions, members and ministers, Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Wailea, Hawaii. Pam Walton holds a photograph of Two by Twos ministers, also referred to as workers, at a library Monday, Dec. 9, 2004, in Wailea, Hawaii. Walton uses historic photos and other records to track the movements of spiritual leaders facing allegations of child sexual abuse within the sect.
Ministry leaders have publicly condemned the abuse but several declined to answer questions from The Associated Press. Unlike the Boy Scouts or the Catholic Church, which have paid out billions to sex abuse victims, the sect’s aversion to property leaves it without apparent assets that might be used to pay settlements, legal experts say.
He began abusing her immediately, sneaking to her room at night and taking her for daytime drives. He turned up the radio whenever the Hall & Oates song “Maneater” came on, singing: “Watch out boy, she’ll chew you up.” “I would have to explain, explicitly, what happened,” Autrey said."And I was in no way prepared for that.”
Another worker, Ruben Mata, abused dozens of boys, among them 10-year-old Douglas Patterson, who was lured away from his family during a sect convention in the early 1990s. Patterson said he kept quiet about it because he feared his family would leave the sect — and thus be barred from eternal salvation — if he told.Members told to keep abuse reports quiet
The letter suggested the sect could fulfill its mandatory abuse-reporting obligations by recommending offenders get professional counseling, because then the counselors — rather than sect leaders — would be obligated to make the reports to police. Nine months after Bruer died, Doyle Smith, the overseer for Idaho and Oregon, wrote a letter to members. Evidence left on Bruer’s phone and laptop showed he had raped and abused multiple underage victims, Smith wrote.
Robert Doecke Jeffrey Burlew Pam Walton U.S. News William Irvine Jared Snyder Dean Bruer Ruben Mata Ed Alexander Eileen Dickey Dale Shultz Religion Sheri Autrey Cynthia Liles Douglas Patterson Lisa Webb Peter Mousseau
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