JW Sex Offender found in Kingdom Hall bathroom...
by mavie 11 Replies latest social current
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crazyblondeb
What??? An elder actually reported this?? The big A may be closer than we think!!
Offender jailed for church toilet incident
| Wednesday, 18 June 2008
A man who was caught breaking a supervision order by talking to a boy in a Palmerston North church toilet has been jailed for three months.
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• Have your say AdvertisementKeith Valentine faced charges of breaching an extended supervision order from May 2006 when he appeared in Palmerston North District Court yesterday.
He has six previous convictions for sexual offending and was attending the church as part of a supervised rehabilitation scheme, the court was told.
The order prohibits Valentine from associating or having contact with any person under 16, but a Jehovah's Witness church elder who knew of his history found the pair talking in the toilet during a break in a service, the Manawatu Standard newspaper reported.
Valentine reported the incident to his probation officer, but said he was a "heterosexual bloke" with a history involving girls, not boys.
But Judge Grant Fraser said it was hard to know how the situation may have developed if the elder had not interrupted and that there was a need for deterrence and protection of the community.
He said Valentine showed no remorse and ordered the terms of his supervision order to continue on his release.
- NZPA
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DaCheech
wow, the elders did the right thing?
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JK666
I bet that elder is in trouble, unless he called from a phone booth.
JK
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MeneMene
Here's the first article I read on this - http://www.stuff.co.nz/4588472a11.html
It says, "But a church elder
who knew of his history interrupted Valentine speaking to a young boy in the toilets during a service."
It does not say the elder reported him to anyone.
It does say, "Valentine reported the incident to his probation officer ..." and that "Valentine attended the church under supervision to help with his rehabilitation ..."
It does not say who was 'supervising' him or why his 'supervisor' was not with him in the bathroom.
I am also curious why the parents of this child allowed him to go to the bathroom by himself with a known child molester attending meeting. Perhaps the congregation was not notified of what was going on????
Sorry to be a wet blanket and I so hope changes/improvements are being made. From these articles in this case I just can't see it yet.
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Gopher
Is Valentine (the offender) a JW in good standing? The JW's have no problem turning in those outside their boys' club.
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BreakingAway
And if the congregation had been informed that there's a predator in their midst then maybe this wouldn't have happened in the first place.
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BLISSISIGNORANCE
'I am also curious why the parents of this child allowed him to go to the bathroom by himself with a known child molester attending meeting. Perhaps the congregation was not notified of what was going on????' From my own personal experience the only people who would know about a pedophile, convicted or not, are only the elders........and even then, like in our case, only two elders knew about the guy that abused our child. We were told specifically not to tell anyone else, even other elders. The only time another elder was informed was when the two original elders decided to trump up some charges against me, got 2 witnesses to tell lies and got the weakest OTHER elder in the congo to sit in on my JC case, a 'yes' man elder. For all I know the pedo may have abused other kids in our congo (god knows he was always around them, playing with them etc.) or previous ones. Fact is my df'ing was in actual fact to shut me up. It happened a year after the incident and the elders had to protect the pedo's family because people started to perceive something was wrong and the offender was under pressure. In the news article case my opinion is the elder who went into the toilet knew something (official or not) about the offender, noticed him missing, found him in the toilet and reported him. It probably went to legal because the authorities had warned the elders (who assured them he would be monitored) that if it happened again in their realm they would be held accountable. With our case the sexual abuse detectives went to the elders and told them they had better inform families and protect the innocent otherwise they would be dragged into the mess. That's why they had me df'ed a year later, they never 'FORGAVE ME' for going to the police and making them become responsible, not for the sexual abuse but for the manner in which the offender was dealt with and protecting others. I'm just glad some other children have been saved from such a horrendous experience (for the moment). Cheers, Bliss
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MeneMene
Bliss, I am so sorry you have been through that. When I found out all of this had been going on without our knowledge I talked with both of my now adult kids to make sure they had never been molested. As a single mom there were many times I allowed my son to go on camping trips and places with a group of 'brothers'. Fortunately neither he or my daughter had any issues.
It is possible this elder did turn Valentine in but I felt it was more likely he threatened to turn Mr. Valentine in if he didn't turn himself in. That's just speculation on my part though. Hopefully it is more likely now that the elders would take some action. I hope we start to hear of some 'success' stories where they did the right thing.
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flipper
Well, however the means-whereby occurred in that this elder turned in this man- it's a good thing he did. Hopefully he will be watched much closer from now on- and they will keep him away from children