‘Plague’ of sex abuse in church alleged
Sunday Star Times
October 18, 2009
The Exclusive Brethren Church is being rocked by accusations that it has covered up a “plague” of sexual abuse in its ranks.
Last week a former member of the church, 74-year-old Clive Allen Petrie, was found guilty in Nelson of nine counts of indecently assaulting girls under 12 and one of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act on him. The case involved four girls, three in the 1950s and 60s, and the fourth in the 1980s.
Former church member Neville McCallum, who last week sent a letter to all 1900 Brethren households in New Zealand about alleged crimes and cover-ups within the church, says the Nelson case “is only the tip of the iceberg”.
And one of the four women assaulted by Petrie told the Sunday Star-Times there were many other cases of sexual abuse in the church.
Continue reading »
Jury finds ex-Brethren guilty of indecency charges
Nelson Mail
New Zealand
October 14, 2009
A Nelson jury has found a former Exclusive Brethren man guilty of indecently assaulting four young girls, in a case in which charges dated back over 50 years.
Clive Ellen Petrie, 74, of Wakatu, was this afternoon found guilty of nine charges of indecently assaulting girls under age 12 and one charge of inducing a girl under age 12 to do an indecent act on him.
Petrie pleaded guilty to another charge of indecent assault on a girl at the start of his trial on Monday in the Nelson District Court.
The jury of nine women and three men took over four hours to return their verdict.
The Crown said the charges related to indecent assaults against four women when they were young girls in the 1950s, early 1960s with a further lot of offending against a fourth victim in the 1980s.
Source: Stuff.Co.NZ – Jury finds ex-Brethren guilty of indecency charges
Ex-Brethren man admits indecency
Nelson Mail
October 13, 2009
A former member of the Exclusive Brethren who claims that as a young girl she was sexually assaulted by another church member, says she was too scared to tell her parents as she was worried the church would split her family up.
“It knocked me incredibly. I couldn’t even tell my parents because they were members of the church. If you told your parents something like that you could end up disintegrating the family, so I hid it.”
The 54-year-old woman was one of four former members of the church who say that they were indecently assaulted by Stoke man Clive Allen Petrie, 74.
At the opening day of a jury trial in the Nelson District Court yesterday, Petrie admitted one charge of indecently assaulting a girl under 12 years old. He denied a further 10 charges of indecently assaulting a girl under 12 years old and two charges of inducing a girl under 12 to do an indecent act on him.
The Crown alleges the offending happened in Nelson and Motueka in the 1950s and 1960s, with further offending occurring against the fourth victim in the 1980s in Stoke.
Petrie was reportedly asked to leave the Exclusive Brethren church in April 2007.
Continue reading »
