Ex-st. George’s Chaplain Howard White Charged with Child Sex Abuse in N.C.

By Tom Mooney
Providence Journal
April 18, 2018

http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180418/ex-st-georges-chaplain-howard-white-charged-with-child-sex-abuse-in-nc

White, 76, who was stripped of his Episcopal priesthood last fall and is behind bars in Massachusetts for raping a prep school student in the 1970s, faces nine counts alleging various sexual abuse of a juvenile boy and a girl back in the 1980s, while he worked at Grace Church in the Mountains, in Waynesville, North Carolina.

Howard W. White Jr., the former associate chaplain at St. George’s School, in Middletown, now behind bars in Massachusetts for raping a prep school student in the 1970s, is facing numerous similar charges in North Carolina.

White, 76, who was stripped of his Episcopal priesthood last fall, faces nine counts alleging various sexual abuse of a juvenile boy and a girl back in the 1980s while he worked at Grace Church in the Mountains, in Waynesville, North Carolina.

The charges, filed after his formal indictment this month by the Haywood County Grand jury, are: one count of rape; four counts of second-degree sexual offense (described as other forms of penetration); one count of second-degree rape; one count of first-degree forcible sex offense; and two counts of indecent liberties with a child.

The charges come weeks before White is scheduled to be released from the Suffolk County House of Corrections. North Carolina law enforcement officials are working to extradite him when his sentence expires.

White was one of six named perpetrators in the sex-abuse scandal at St. George’s that has rocked the Episcopal prep school since 2015.

Last May, he pleaded guilty to five counts of assault and battery for his abuse of a student with whom he twice traveled from St. George’s School to Boston in the 1970s. He was sentenced to serve 18 months but is facing early release with good time factored in.

White was the subject of a Providence Journal investigation that showed how he had left a trail of sex-abuse allegations spanning decades.

The Boston abuse happened when White befriended a male juvenile who was 15 or 16 years old during his time at St. George’s School. The victim said White lured him with fancy dinners, movies and his Porsche.

White raped the boy in Boston hotel rooms. Prosecutors said when the boy confronted White, asking him to stop, White said: “I’ll tell you what. It’s not going to stop. If you try to stop, I’ll make your life difficult.”

White allegedly admitted to school officials that he assaulted the boy in 1974. He was quietly dismissed. School officials never notified authorities.

White moved on to Grace Church in Waynesville.

White had been living in Bedford, Pennsylvania, serving as a volunteer priest at St. James Episcopal Church, when the St. George’s scandal broke open in December 2015.

His two accusers in the Waynesville indictment stepped forward afterward. The man told The Journal that county social services placed him with White at a church rectory when he was 15. He said he fled after White raped and sexually molested him multiple times.

The woman told the newspaper that White molested her when she was about 15. According to the indictment, White raped and molested her numerous times between August 1984 and the end of 1985.

Contact: tmooney@providencejournal.com