Child sex abuse inquiry: Former pastor cannot accept son-in-law is paedophile, despite conviction

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Nicole Chettle

A former Pentecostal pastor at a Sunshine Coast church cannot accept that a former youth leader who married his daughter is a paedophile, an inquiry has heard.

Jonathan Baldwin was jailed for a maximum of eight years in 2009 for molesting a 13-year-old boy for two years at the Queensland church.

The church, which could not be named for legal reasons, was attended by about 200 people.

Baldwin had a non-parole period of four years and was no longer in jail.

His father-in-law and former boss, Ian Lehmann, told the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Wednesday that Baldwin made an error in judgment but was not a paedophile.

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