United Church Denies Liability in Sex Abuse Allegations

By Barb Sweet
The Telegram
February 26, 2015

http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2015-02-25/article-4057293/United-Church-denies-liability-in-sex-abuse-allegations/1

The United Church is once again distancing itself from a former doctor and minister, denying liability for the latest sex abuse allegations against him stemming from his time in this province decades ago.

The church filed a statement of defence last week in the latest civil claim against Stephen James Collins, the first defendant in a Jane Doe case that dates back to the 1960s. The allegations have not been proven in court and her community cannot be named.

The statement of claim, filed late last year by Will Hiscock of Budden and Associates, contends the church failed to properly screen Collins or to properly supervise him and should have known there was “criminal behaviour against children.”

The woman claims she was abused in the 1960s when she participated in church activities such as choir and Sunday school led by Collins.

But the United Church in the statement of defence, contends it had no knowledge or control of Collins’ alleged activities and if his actions are, indeed, proven in the case, they took place on his own time. The church also denies being aware of any allegations.

“In particular, United Church denies that at any time it had actual knowledge of the (alleged) activities carried out by Stephen J. Collins and further states that any such activities as conducted were outside the duties that Stephen J. Collins undertook as an ordained minister with United Church,” the statement of defence said.

Collins, diagnosed in the 1980s as a pedophile, was convicted in a criminal case involving children ranging in age from seven to 11 over the period 1975-86 in Baie Verte and La Scie. All but two of the children were girls.

Prior to attending medical school in Ontario in 1970, he was a minister in Labrador. Collins returned to Newfoundland to practise medicine in Baie Verte and La Scie.

The incidents for which Collins was convicted consisted of displaying and encouraging nudity, photographing and displaying photographs of nude children, fondling, kissing, masturbation, oral sex and attempts at sexual intercourse with a female child.

In 1986, Collins pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual assault and four counts of indecent assault.

On appeal in 1987, Collins was sentenced to two years in prison and three years’ probation, during which time he was to receive treatment.

The Jane Doe in the latest case was not among the victims involved in those criminal charges, but her abuse allegations are similar. It is not the only civil action against Collins.

St. John’s lawyer Bob Buckingham has already settled a Jane Doe case involving a woman who was among the children Collins was convicted of assaulting.

Another of Buckingham’s cases — involving a woman who lived on the Baie Verte Peninsula, but who was not among those involved in the conviction — is still before the courts.

Collins grew up in Africa after being born to church missionary parents, but completed post-secondary degrees in Canada.

His current address is unknown, although he is believed to be in Angola.

Collins’ name was stricken from the register by this province’s medical licensing board in 1987.

But a man with a similar name is listed as practising medicine at a hospital in Angola on the website of that country’s medical licensing organization.

The United Church placed Collins on the discontinued service list in 1986 and he is therefore no longer a United Church minister.