Press TV
March 23, 2011
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/171218.html
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A former youth pastor arrested in Iowa on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation allegedly told teenage boys he was trying to help them gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."
Thirty-one-year-old Brent Girouex, a former youth pastor at Victory Fellowship Church in Council Bluffs, turned himself in to the police in February after four young men came forward with allegations against him, The Daily Nonpareil reported.
Girouex has been released on a $30,000 bond and is due back in court on April 21. If found guilty, he faces up to five years on each charge.
Court documents show Girouex told investigators he had sexual contact with a teenage boy 25 to 50 times over a four-year period, starting when the boy was 14-years-old. He allegedly told investigators that it was his duty as a youth pastor "to help [the teen] with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him."
"In my line of work, I get to see the worst of the worst, and this is pretty bad," Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber told KETV. His office is working with the alleged victims.
At least eight people have come forward with accusations against Girouex, ranging in age from 14 to 23. Raw Story
FACTS & FIGURES
The three companies Church Mutual Insurance Co., GuideOne Insurance Co. and Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Co. that insure the majority of Protestant churches in America say they typically receive upward of 260 reports each year of young people under 18 being sexually abused by clergy, church staff, volunteers or congregation members. pinoyexchange.com
Protestant numbers have been harder to come by and are sketchier because the denominations are less centralized than the Catholic Church; indeed, many congregations are independent, which makes reporting even more difficult. pinoyexchange.com
The largest company, Church Mutual, reported an average of about 100 sex abuse cases a year involving minors over the past decade. GuideOne, which has about half the clients of Church Mutual, said it has received an average of 160 reports of sex abuse against minors every year for the past two decades. pinoyexchange.com
Brotherhood Mutual said it has received an average of 73 reports of child sex abuse and other sexual misconduct every year for the past 15 years. However, Brotherhood does not specify which victims are younger than 18 so it is impossible to accurately add that to the total cases. pinoyexchange.com
Tom Farr, general counsel and senior vice president of claims for GuideOne, based in West Des Moines, Iowa, said most abuse cases are resolved privately in court-ordered mediation. Awards can range from millions of dollars down to paying for counseling for victims, he said. pinoyexchange.com
One of the largest settlements to date in Protestant churches involved the case of former Lutheran minister Gerald Patrick Thomas Jr. in Texas, where a jury several years ago awarded the minister's victims nearly $37 million. Separate earlier settlements involving Thomas cost an additional $32 million. pinoyexchange.com
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