Former Pastor Guilty of Sexual Assault

By Kennedy Gordon
Peterborough Examiner
February 13, 2015

http://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/2015/02/13/former-pastor-guilty-of-sexual-assault

A former pastor was found guilty Friday of two sex-related charges involving a then-teenaged boy 25 years ago.

Mr. Justice Hugh O'Connell found Clifton Pelley guilty of sexual assault and gross indecency, but not guilty of three other charges involving a different man who alleged Pelley drugged him and sexually assaulted him as a teen.

O'Connell told the court he had no difficult believing the testimony of the victim, who said Pelley had taken him into a church office after a tri p to the U.S. In 1985 and told him he had the authority of the church and the police to inspect his genitals.

Pelley told the then-16-year-old that a girl had been impregnated on the trip and he had to look for a distinctive marking on the genitals of the boys of the church. The boy agreed and Pelley carried out the inspection.

“I did not find this to be scripted evidence. Rather, I found it to be very telling testimony ... very truthful,” O'Connell said. “I completely accept that Mr. Pelley used the ruse of the pregnancy” to carry out the abuse.