Orange Co. pastor arrested in molesting of 4 teens ages 13 to 17

A pastor at a strip mall church in Anaheim has been arrested for allegedly molesting four teenage girls who live in church-funded housing for needy families.

Anaheim police Sgt. Rick Martinez says Jose Campoverde, who heads Ministerio Cristo Vive, was being held on $500,000 bail Tuesday. He was arrested Thursday after a two-week police investigation.

Martinez says the investigation began when a 17-year-old girl reported that Campoverde fondled her and tried to kiss her as he was giving her a ride home earlier this month.

Police learned similar incidents allegedly occurred with three other girls, ages 13 to 17, in Campoverde's car or at the church.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/29/state/n072453D93.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0Sd7IssSS

N.S. bishop facing child porn charges

OTTAWA — A Catholic bishop from Nova Scotia has been charged with possession and importation of child pornography after a search of his laptop computer at the Ottawa airport.

Ottawa police say "images of concern" were found on the computer of Raymond Lahey when he was re-entering Canada from a foreign country on Sept. 15. Lahey was released at the time but both his computer and other "media devices" were seized, said Const. J.P. Vincelette.

Charges were laid Sept. 25 and a warrant has been issued for Lahey's arrest.

The bishop resigned from his post with the diocese of Antigonish on the weekend, before news of the charges became public knowledge.

In August, the 69-year-old signed off on a $13-million class-action settlement involving sexual abuse in the Antigonish diocese that dated back to 1950.


A notice Saturday from Anthony Mancini, the Archbishop of Halifax, said Pope Benedict had accepted Lahey's resignation "for personal reasons."

Lahey informed his parishioners in a letter the same day that he'd resigned "to take some much-needed time for personal renewal."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hFkwpncor_LYtze3TxF1KM6AmXTA">LINK

Ky. church ordains sex offender as minister

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A tiny Louisville church's newest minister is a gifted music leader and popular among its three dozen members.

Mark Hourigan is also a sex offender. Almost a decade ago, long before he joined the flock at the City of Refuge Worship Center, he was convicted of sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy in central Kentucky. Hourigan served a five-year sentence and the 41-year-old was placed on Kentucky's sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

A former leader at the church along with an abuse victims advocacy group say Hourigan is a risk to hurt another child and he should not have been placed in a position of authority.

"He's still a threat" to children, said Cal Pfeiffer, who was abused by a Catholic priest as a young student in Louisville in the late 1950s and early 60s.

Pfeiffer and experts on religion and sexual abuse believe it could be the first time a convicted sex offender has been knowingly ordained as a minister in a Christian church.

LINK

Men who were abused by Christian Brothers in St. John's Mount Cashel orphanage decades ago say they told police about Bishop Raymond Lahey's possession of child pornography in the 1980s.

"I think the dropped the ball on it big time," Billy Earle, of St. John's, told CBC News Thursday. "Senior officers on the job right now dropped the ball on this big time."

Lahey is now facing charges of possessing and importing child pornography. He turned himself in to Ottawa police Thursday and was released on $9,000 bail.

Billy Earle believes Lahey should have been investigated earlier.

Twenty years ago, Earle and his brother Shane Earle testified at Newfoundland and Labrador's Hughes inquiry into the Mount Cashel orphanage, where they suffered abuse as children.

Sicko creep bastards