Child Abuse Inquiry: Victim of Sunshine Coast Youth Pastor Still Angry at Church's Handling of Complaint

By Nicole Chettle
ABC News
October 16, 2014

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-16/child-sex-abuse-victim-of-sunshine-coast-pastor-angry-at-church/5819858

PHOTO: Pastor Christian Peterson says he should have brought a child sex abuse matter to the urgent attention of his superiors. (AAP Image: Dan Himbrechts)

A man molested by a Sunshine Coast youth pastor as a child is still extremely angry at the church's handling of his complaint more than five years after his abuser was jailed, an inquiry has heard.

Perpetrator Jonathan Baldwin befriended his victim, referred to in the commission as ALA, at a Queensland church that cannot be named for legal reasons in 2004.

The abuse allegedly occurred over a two-year period beginning when ALA was 13, the Royal Commission into the Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse heard.

The inquiry heard the boy's family was baffled by the "deafening silence" of the church when in 2009 Baldwin was jailed for eight years, with a non-parole period of four years, on charges including "maintaining", the indecent treatment of a child under 16 and sodomy.

The victim's father, ALD, wrote an email to the senior pastor at the church in May 2009.

"I see this as a significant lack of duty of care from the leadership," he said in the email.

I see this as a significant lack of duty of care from the leadership.

Victim's father ALD

"Have AOG (Assemblies of God) any processes to address these matters or do they just duck for cover and hope it will go away?

"More than a month has passed since the sentencing and not a word from AOG."

Pastor Christian Peterson took over the leadership role at the local church in 2006 from Baldwin's father-in-law, Ian Lehmann.

The following year the AOG, which the local church was affiliated with, was re-named Australian Christian Churches, or ACC.

Mr Peterson told the commission he should have brought the matter to the urgent attention of his superiors.

"I could've done and I should've done more, and there are no excuses for that," he said.

"Maybe it was a blind spot. I was attending to their felt need at the time and I was not accounting for the Assemblies of God or ACC's lack of involvement and I should've."

Lawyer says family's anger is directed at the church

The victim's family's lawyer, Peter O'Brien, earlier told the commission Mr Peterson did offer support at the time and its anger was directed at the broader church.

Another email in October 2009, entitled "A father's cry from his heart to his son's. Can you help?" was sent by ALD to every church official whose email address he could find.

It detailed the abuse and the ongoing impact of the criminal and civil proceedings.

In all of this, where is the church organisation, the AOG, that allowed that man to do what he did.

Victim's father ALD

"In all of this, where is the church organisation, the AOG, that allowed that man to do what he did," ALD wrote in the email.

"Hiding behind an insurance company?"

The commission heard one Queensland church official responded by asking if the email was genuine, or spam.

Later, the church insurers handling the compensation claim met with ALA and his parents.

Claims officer said church should respond to email

Stephen Watson, a claims officer with ACS, wrote to the ACC and said the victim's sense of abandonment may have started when "no official contact or support was received from the ACC or from the local church, except from the current pastor".

"In order to rectify this apparent lack of support I suggest that it might be appropriate for the ACC Queensland to respond to ALD's email," Mr Watson wrote.

"The response would ideally include an acceptance of the facts as they stand, that ALA has been victim of an unconscionable crime.

"A simple explanation should detail what policies the ACC has in place to deal with these situations, in that credentials are immediately suspended upon presentation of accusations.

"And the ACC may wish to acknowledge its commitment to ALA and the family as well as to other congregations around Australia, in particular children and youth and the policies it has in place to protect them wherever possible."

Gary Swenson from ACC said officials did not take the advice of the insurer and contact the family to acknowledge the crime.

"We would not want to see any victim of abuse uncared for, absolutely," he said.

The hearings were to conclude in Sydney on Friday, when ACC national president Wayne Alcorn was due to give evidence.