By Robyn Ironside and Sophie Elsworth
Courier Mail
April 19, 2008
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,23561190-3102,00.html
A BAPTIST Church minister convicted of destroying evidence of child sexual abuse is allowed to work with children again and has been reinstated to his previous ranking in the church.
Douglas Ray Ensbey, 56, was restored to the ministry of the Maleny parish by Queensland Baptists in February, less than four years after his conviction for intentionally destroying evidence.
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| BACK in the fold ... Douglas Ray Ensbey |
In March 2004, Mr Ensbey was given a suspended jail term for shredding a teenage girl's diary that detailed her sexual abuse by a member of the Sandgate Baptist Church when he was a minister in the 1990s.
The parents of the girl gave the diary to Mr Ensbey for an internal church investigation but he shredded the pages and sent them back to her family, later claiming he was trying to protect them from further incrimination.
The man responsible for the abuse pleaded guilty and was sentenced on charges of sexually abusing the girl when she was aged between 14 and 15.
Mr Ensbey unsuccessfully appealed his conviction for destroying evidence. He was stripped of his Blue Card, preventing him from working with children, and suspended from the church.
Just over a year later he applied to the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian for another Blue Card.
When his application was rejected, Mr Ensbey appealed to the Children Services Tribunal, which set aside the commissioner's decision and issued him with a new card.
Queensland Baptists general superintendent the Rev David Loder said the re-issuing of the Blue Card was central to the church's decision to have Mr Ensbey back.
"We had our own inquiry and after serving a period of suspension and undergoing professional counselling, the church decided he was suitable for the ministry," Dr Loder said. "The report back from his counsellor was that all issues had been addressed."
Mr Ensbey told The Courier Mail this week, he was "very remorseful" about past events.
"I feel bad. I'm a likeable, loveable sort of bloke. I don't like anybody feeling bad about me," Mr Ensbey said. "I'm very upset internally, very upset by the process which the situation went through. I don't think it was the best process in the world."
But the mother of the sexual abuse victim whose diary was destroyed by Mr Ensbey said he had never apologised to them.
"I was led to believe that was a requirement of him returning to the ministry. But he's never said sorry, not to us," the woman said.
She said she was disgusted to learn he had been allowed to get another Blue Card after being convicted of such an offence. "They're just not worth the paper they're printed on," she said. "What's the point of taking it off someone, if you're going to give it straight back?"
Commissioner for Children and Young People Elizabeth Fraser would not comment specifically on the case, but said that in cases where the commission declined an application, the applicant could appeal to the Children Services Tribunal.
"The tribunal is an independent body that reviews certain decisions affecting services for children, including those made by the commissioner regarding the issue of Blue Cards," Ms Fraser said. "If the tribunal sets aside the Commissioner's decision to issue a negative notice, a Blue Card would be issued."
A former Baptist minister said the whole affair smacked of hypocrisy by the church. "This is a church that won't allow divorced people to be ministers, that won't allow women to be ministers. The hypocrisy of that is appalling," he said.
Mr Ensbey said his position with the church was not a job, but "a calling, an assignment from God".
"It was the people of Maleny who called me to come back. It was their choice and their decision," he said.
"I'm fulfilling my responsibilities as best that I can."
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