‘Dad hurts me’: therapist says priest’s son said they played ‘The Butt Game’

ALABAMA
AL.com

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

The child therapist who initiated an investigation of child abuse against a Birmingham Catholic priest testified today in Jefferson County Court that the priest’s son told her that his father made him play what he called “The Butt Game.”

A trial began Monday for David Lawrence Stone, a Catholic priest and former EWTN TV host who was arrested in 2013 and charged with sexual abuse of a minor under 12. The minor he is charged with sexually abusing is his own son, now eight years old. Stone has been embroiled in a custody battle.

Stone, 55, formerly known as Father Francis Mary Stone, was host of the TV program “Life on the Rock” on Eternal Word Television Network.

Leah Waller, a therapist at Wellspring Christian Clinic, said the child was brought to her for counseling because he had anxiety about going to visitation with his father in 2012.

“The anxiety was very high about going to visit Dad,” Waller said. “He said, ‘Dad hurts me.'”

Through game-play using toy dinosaurs representing the boy and his parents and Legos representing the child’s father’s home and his mother’s home, Waller asked the boy to explain what happened when he went to visit his father.

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