AUSTRALIA
The Australian
April 10, 2017
DAN BOX
Crime reporterSydney
@DanBox10
The father of the man who leads the Salvation Army’s powerful Eastern Territory will appear in court next month charged with 14 sexual offences, including a series of alleged indecent assaults on girls under the age of 16.
Ray Pethybridge, whose son Lieutenant Colonel Kelvin Pethybridge is the chief secretary-in-charge of the church across NSW, Queensland and the ACT, has not yet entered a plea to the alleged offences.
The revelation demonstrates how exposed the organisation has become to the global scandal surrounding church child abuse and follows evidence, uncovered recently by a royal commission, of horrific assaults committed by its officers and staff.
Mr Pethybridge, a former court chaplain who also worked in the church’s Sydney hostels providing accommodation for the homeless and poor, is among three of its former officers currently before the courts on child sex offences.
Another officer and a Salvation Army soldier were convicted of multiple sexual assaults late last year, while evidence before the royal commission identified at least 19 people in the organisation who allegedly abused children over decades.
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