AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail
Mark Oberhardt
11dec04
AN assistant Baptist pastor, jailed for five years on sex charges in Queensland, could have left the US under a cloud for similar behaviour, it was alleged yesterday.
In the District Court in Brisbane, Michael Leeroy Marsh, 30, was sentenced to five years' jail with a recommendation for parole after 20 months when he admitted 16 offences against five boys, including three brothers.
The court heard Marsh, an American who arrived in Brisbane in 1998, used his position as a youth group leader to meet the boys and later molest them.
Most of the offences involved touching of the genitals but one of the victims was sodomised.
A large number of people from the church community were in court to see Marsh, who has now left the Baptist Church, kiss his wife farewell as he was led away to the cells.
The court heard Marsh had no previous criminal convictions. However, outside court parents of the victims raised the question of whether Marsh had come to Australia after he was "kicked out" of college for "something involving boys"?