ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune
Prosecutors: Minister admitted to sexual abuse after confronted by victim’s parents
By Michelle Manchir and Jeremy Gorner
Tribune reporters
6:07 p.m. CDT, June 27, 2014
A minister was charged with sexual abuse this week after his alleged victim, now 19, remembered while training to become a camp counselor that he had been attacked years ago, authorities said Friday.
“During the training, the victim learned about how to respond if he were to learn of the sexual abuse of a child,” prosecutors said in court documents. “This triggered the victim’s memory and he immediately (told) his parents.”
The parents confronted John Hays, 57, who admitted he had molested the teen, according to prosecutors. The teen was sexually abused from the time he was 8 until he was 13 years old, prosecutors said. Hays was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse.
When the abuse began in February 2003, Hays was the victim’s neighbor, father of his friends and a pastor, prosecutors said. The victim would come to Hays’ house to play video games with Hays’ sons, they said.
Hays would “enter the room and place the victim on his lap” and fondle the boy, prosecutors said.
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