AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
October 17, 2014
Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter
A man who was repeatedly molested by his youth pastor lashed out at church elders, accusing them of using the child sexual abuse royal commission to “justify their failings and minimise their responsibilities”.
In a statement read out to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, the man, now aged in his mid-20s, described his life as a living hell.
The royal commission heard that he was abused for two years from the age of 13 to 15 by a youth pastor at his Pentecostal church in Queensland.
Jonathan Baldwin was convicted over the offences in 2009 and sentenced to eight years jail but has since been released. His father-in-law, Ian Lehmann, was the senior pastor of the church at the time of the offences.
His victim, given the pseudonym ALA, said Mr Lehmann and the umbrella body for the Pentecostal movement, Australian Christian Churches, had failed him and his family.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.