Minister Denies Putting Hands down Boys’ Pyjamas in Church Sleepover Two Decades Ago

Huron Bullet News
September 20, 2012

http://huron.bulletnewscanada.ca/2012/09/19/minister-denies-putting-hands-down-boys-pyjamas-in-church-sleepover-two-decades-ago/

HEATHER BOA Bullet News GODERICH – David Woodall says he did not put his hands down the pyjamas and touch the penises two young boys during a church sleepover in Clinton two decades ago.

So when he received an email in March 2008 from a man who accused the minister of touching his and another boy’s penis, saying he would go the church and the police if he weren’t paid thousands of dollars, “I was actually flabbergasted. I felt like I was going to have to somehow deal with [the complainant] and what he had to say,” Woodall told the jury during the third day of a trial in Superior court in Goderich.

Woodall, 56, faces a number of charges related to sexual assaults on two male complainants who were young boys when a youth group sleepover was held at the Ontario Street United Church – which is now Clinton United Church – between 1991 and 1993. He was the church’s minister from 1985 to 1994. The two complainants, now in their early 30s, cannot be identified.

Woodall started two youth groups at the church: one for boys and girls in Grades 9 to 13 and one for boys and girls in Grades 7 to 8. Depending on the size of group and the year, there were as many as five adults involved. During sleepovers, the church followed the Camping Association of Canada’s standard of one adult per four youth.

Woodall said he usually slept with the boys and in the winter was in the habit of wearing long underwear, ski socks to his knees and work socks during outings. He would change into gym shorts and a t-shirt in his office while the boys changed into pyjamas or gym shorts in the washrooms or in the room where they were sleeping.

He does not recall a sleepover with the complainants, nor any sexual molestation or inappropriate touching.

In March 2008, Woodall paid the complainant $21,000 and then in July 2008 loaned him $5,000 in return for repeated promises from the complainant not to take his allegations of sexual molestation to the church and the police. Woodall also elicited two signed statements from the complainant that acknowledged the allegations were false.

“False allegations of sexual abuse, when they go forward and become public, ruin people lives,” said Woodall, adding false allegations by the complainant would ruin his life.

“My life is crumbling. He’s walking over my grave, it felt like,” he said.

In 2008, the minister was executive secretary of the London Conference of the United Church of Canada, responsible for eight presbyteries in southwestern Ontario, along with 18 congregations in Sault Ste. Marie. There were 75,000 churchgoers in 330 congregations.

His employment ended in May 2011 as a result of the allegations.

Then in October 2008, Woodall received an email demanding another $20,000. He said he realized the complainant would not leave him alone, and Nov. 20, 2008, he went to the London Police Services, knowing he would be charged in the allegations.

He did not tell the church, his wife or his family about the allegations until November 2008.

Under cross-examination by Crown attorney Teresa Donnelly, Woodall said the complainant would go to the police or the church board if money weren’t paid to him, but he agreed the complainant did not threaten to go public.

He was aware of the United Church’s policy on sexual abuse, which says “when a complaint of sexual abuse is brought to the attention of the church, the church will thoroughly investigate the allegations, taking into account allegations from all relevant parties, and then determine the veracity of the complaint.”

“You couldn’t admit it because you not only betrayed the boys but the United Church of Canada, in the very house you were minister in,” Donnelly said.

The lawyers are expected to give their closing arguments tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., with Justice Peter Hockin’s charge to the jury on Friday morning at 10 a.m.