Ex-pastor Arrested after Woman Accidentally Uncovers Boyfriend’s 10-year History of Abuse

By David Ferguson
Raw Story
September 3, 2014

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/03/ex-pastor-arrested-after-woman-accidentally-uncovers-boyfriends-10-year-history-of-abuse/

A former Pennsylvania pastor is charged with serially molesting a boy for ten years, beginning when the victim was 9 years old.

The Scranton Times-Tribune reported that Norman T. Faux, 54, former pastor of Lake Ariel and Centenary United Methodist churches is in custody after a woman found a lewd text message from Faux to her boyfriend on the boyfriend’s phone.

The woman told her mother about the message, who in turn urged the now 19-year-old victim to report the long-term sexual abuse, which began in 2004 and continued until a few weeks ago.

On Friday, the victim gave testimony to officials at Wayne County Children and Youth Services, saying that when he was 11 years old, Faux would play him pornographic videos while the minister performed oral sex on him. These encounters happened more frequently than he could count, said the young man.

Faux is currently being held at the Wayne County Correctional Center and was unable to make the $150,000 bail. On Wednesday, he asked for a formal preliminary hearing and appeared in Wayne County Central Court.

The Times-Tribune said that Faux was charged with “involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with someone less than 16 years old and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, three counts of aggravated indecent assault and one count of indecent assault.”

In court on Wednesday, Faux asked for a bail reduction, but Magisterial District Judge Ted Mikulak declined the request.

Faux was tried in a Methodist Church trial in 2011 on accusations of sexual contact with a minor parishioner. He went before the Scranton District of the Susquehanna Conference of the United Methodist Church and voluntarily surrendered his church credentials.

It is unclear, said the Times-Tribune, whether the 2011 accusations were related to the current case.