Salvation Army senior commanders are related to alleged abusers, by Dan Box, Austrlaian (April 26, 2017)

Three of the Salvation Army’s most senior commanders are closely related to men who have been accused of, charged with or convicted of sexual offences, including against children.

The revelation demonstrates how deeply the church child-sex scandal has affected the tight-knit Salvation Army community and comes after a royal commission uncovered evidence of horrific assaults allegedly committed by its officers and staff.

The commission identified at least 19 alleged child abusers within the Salvation Army over recent decades, while an ongoing police investigation into boys’ homes run by the church has led to two arrests so far.

The Salvation Army’s national chief secretary, Colonel Mark Campbell, is the son-in-law of a former major, Errol Woodbury, who was the subject of “historical allegations” that led to his being stripped of his position in 2015.

Queensland’s divisional commander, Lieutenant Colonel David Godkin, is the son-in-law of a former Salvation Army soldier, Maurice Press, who is serving 5½ years in jail for 11 counts of sexual assault on a child.

The Australian has previously revealed that Ray Pethybridge, whose son Kelvin is chief secretary-in-charge of the church’s powerful eastern territory, will face court next month charged with 14 sexual offences, including indecent assaults on girls under 16.

Two of Mr Pethybridge’s alleged victims said they grew up in the Salvation Army but left the church after they came forward claiming to have been assaulted

“They just didn’t do anything about it,” said one woman, whose family reported the allegations to the Salvation Army in the 1980s.

“I don’t know whether they just turned a blind eye and didn’t know anything about it but I also think there was a mentality back then that if you ask God’s forgiveness ... you will be forgiven.

The second woman said: “They like to think they have (changed) but how can they? To me, the Salvation Army has lost all humanity in the way we have been treated.”

More than 250 of those who gave evidence in private to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said they were abused in recent decades in children’s homes run by the Salvation Army.

Evidence before the commission shows Mr Woodbury was involved in handling claims of physical and mental abuse against one such child in 1993.

In a statement, the church said it had “commissioned an independent external investigation into historical allegations made against Mr Woodbury, with the findings from that investigation being provided to both the Queensland Police and the NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian.

“A decision was made to terminate Mr Woodbury’s officership in 2015. Mr Woodbury is strictly prohibited from representing the Salvation Army in any official capacity,” the statement said.

The Salvation Army has previously said it “co-operated with a police investigation and ... criminal proceedings” against Press, who was jailed in November.

A Salvos spokesman said “a number of significant changes to ensure policies and procedures remain best-practice’’ had been enacted. “The Salvation Army would like to again sincerely and unreservedly apologise to survivors, their families and the Australian public for serious past failures.”