Tag Archives: child rape

Columbus’s CBS affiliate reports: The sheriff’s office said 36-year-old Gary Thomas Keesee Jr. was arrested at his home and is charged with two counts of rape.  According to Mount Vernon Municipal Court records, the victim who made the initial report said the abuse happened when they were 5 and 6 years old and took place on over 50 occasions. During …

Memphis’s NBC affiliate reports: A Bartlett man is behind bars indicted on rape charges. John Miller, a former youth volunteer at Hope Church, is charged with rape of a child—a class-A felony. According to the indictment, the crime allegedly occurred in 2006; the case was presented to a grand jury last month. Hope Church says all its volunteers must undergo repeated …

Florida’s Mid Bay News reports: Police charged Aaron Craig Gleason with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under the age of 12 by a person over the age of 18 on Tuesday. Okaloosa County Jail records show that Gleason remains in jail and has been denied bond. Profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook with the names A.C. Gleason and Aaron …

The Tennessee Mountain Press reports: A Sevier County grand jury has charged the pastor of a local church with rape of a child and five counts of sexual battery. Sixty-nine-year-old Dwight Daniel Suttles was booked at the Sevier County Jail Tuesday night, according to arrest warrants. He was charged through a sealed presentment issued by a Sevier County grand jury, …

The CBC reports: A former Catholic priest convicted of sexually abusing children in Nunavut has been sentenced to six years in prison. Eric Dejaeger, 77, pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexually abusing children in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982. The children Dejaeger abused, who are now middle-aged, were between the ages of four and nine. Justice Faiyaz Alibhai read …

The Canadian Press reports: A Catholic priest’s sex assaults on Inuit children decades ago in Igloolik, Nvt., transformed a once friendly and trusting hamlet into a place marred by anger and addiction, court heard Thursday. Wails and shouts could be heard in the Iqaluit courtroom where Eric Dejaeger pleaded guilty to indecent assaults against six girls and one boy between …

Duluth’s Fox affiliate reports: While the criminal cases against former Duluth Vineyard youth pastor Jackson Gatlin were prevented by a plea deal, new lawsuits aim to discover how sexual abuse within the church went overlooked for so long. On Nov. 6, Jackson Gatlin pled guilty to five counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct with a child. Gatlin received a 13-year sentence …

New Orleans’ NBC affiliate reports: A former New Orleans priest who pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping has died at 93, according to his attorney, Bobby Hjortsberg. Lawrence Hecker was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday, Dec. 18, after pleading guilty to aggravated kidnapping, aggravated crime against nature, first-degree rape, and theft. He died at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center on …

Jonesboro, Arkansas’s CW affiliate reports: A former Craighead County pastor accused of sexual assault will spend the next decade behind bars. Second Judicial Circuit Court Judge Scott Ellington sentenced 58-year-old Anthony Lee Strickland, of Bono, after pleading guilty to two counts of sexual assault. He was charged Nov. 16, 2021, with one count of rape and one count of sexual …

New Orleans’ NBC affiliate reports: A former New Orleans priest who pleaded guilty to rape and kidnapping has been sentenced to life in prison. Lawrence Hecker, 93, was sentenced Wednesday, just weeks after he entered his plea moments before jury selection was slated to begin in his trial He does not have the eligibility for parole. District Attorney Jason Williams …

Courthouse News reports: The man who used his power as a religious leader in a small Arizona town to marry and repeatedly rape 10 underage girls for nearly two years will spend the next 50 in a federal prison. The young women once victimized by Samuel Rappylee Bateman faced him in a Phoenix courtroom for the last time Monday afternoon. …

Tulsa’s Fox affiliate reports: An Inola pastor was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday after being found guilty of rape and two counts of lewd or indecent acts involving young girls. FOX23 told you four years ago about Inola pastor Roy Shoop when he was arrested. Shoop was the pastor of the Cowboy Gatherin’ Church in Inola. The …

Tulsa’s ABC affiliate reports: A jury found an Inola pastor guilty of rape and two counts of lewd or indecent acts involving young girls Thursday morning. Four years ago, Inola pastor Roy Shoop was arrested. “I felt I was looking the devil right in the eye,” said Sheriff Scott Walton from the Rogers County Sheriff’s Office as he explained the …

CBS News reports: Pope Francis promised Saturday to “offer all the help we can” to aid clergy sexual abuse victims, after a group of Belgian survivors told him first-hand of the trauma that had shattered their lives and left many in poverty and mental misery. Francis’ visit to Belgium has been dominated by the abuse scandal, with King Philippe and …

Tulsa’s Fox affiliate reports: A Tulsa pastor was arrested and charged with rape, child sex abuse and incest. He just resigned from his church over the weekend. According to an affidavit, Bertheophilus Maurice “Judge” Bailey Sr. began sexually assaulting his victim when she was a child. It went on to say the abuse got worse as she got older. Until …

The North Carolina Beat reports: From the pulpit to a prison cell, 37-year-old Demiro Rick Johnson will be 71 years old when he is released from prison and required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his natural life, according to court documents obtained by The North Carolina Beat. On Friday, a judge sentenced Johnson, a now–convicted …

Mobile’s Fox affiliate reports: A judge today sentenced a former Mobile County minister to a total of 20 years in prison for sexually abusing two young children. Kenneth Turberville was supposed to go on trial today for sodomy. However, he pleaded guilty on Friday instead to two counts of attempted sexual abuse of a minor. Prosecutors say one victim was …

The Roys Report reports: A pastor who led a “generation of youth” in Virginia has been charged with 19 counts of sexual abuse, including 10 counts of forcible sodomy and eight counts of indecent liberties with a child while in a custodial role. David Lawrence Schneider, of Farnham, Virginia was also charged on Aug. 9 with aggravated sexual battery, according …

The Associated Press reports: A high-profile former North Dakota lawmaker who was one of the most powerful members of the Legislature pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to a charge that he traveled to Europe with the intent to pay for sex with a minor. Ray Holmberg, 80, of Grand Forks, was indicted in October 2023 for travel with intent …

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports: Montgomery County Court Judge Thomas Branca told the Rev. Mark Hatcher that two versions of the North Philadelphia pastor had been presented in his courtroom Thursday. One was an active, beloved community leader who helped countless people through his ministry at Holy Ghost Headquarters Revivalist Center. The other was a serial predator who used that authority …