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GREENWOOD, Mo. (ABP) -- In what the
detective investigating it described as Missouri's biggest clergy
sex-abuse to date, Shawn Davies, a 33-year-old former music and
youth minister, was sentenced Jan. 12 to 20 years in prison for
molesting children at First Baptist Church of Greenwood, Mo.
Davies was convicted of 25 counts of
abuse dating from 2003. Charges included statutory sodomy,
furnishing pornographic material to minors, supplying liquor to
minors, sexual misconduct with a child under the age of 14, use of a
child in sexual performance and endangering the welfare of a child.
Under a plea-bargain deal, Davies
will serve the 20 years as concurrent sentences for crimes committed
in Missouri and Kentucky.
Davies was earlier convicted of
molesting children at three Kentucky Baptist churches. He had been
serving jail time in Kentucky when authorities returned him to
Jackson County, Mo., last year.
A sheriff's office in Kentucky began
investigating Davies in 2001 after a boy told deputies his youth
minister had shown him pornographic movies.
Police started the Missouri
investigation in July 2005 after another boy came forward with
charges of sexual molestation. All told, seven boys connected with
the Greenwood church were abused, according to Greenwood detective
Robert Leslie. Leslie said at least 13 victims total have come
forward with allegations, including children in Missouri, Kentucky
and Michigan.
"This man is a predator," Leslie
said. "He is going to be a cancer to society unless he is locked up.
I'm sure there are still other victims of Shawn's out there."
None of the victims were present at
the sentencing, although Leslie said Davies apologized to some of
the victims' parents who were in the courtroom.
Davies went to prison in December of
2005, but KCTV-5, the local CBS affiliate, ran an investigative
story on the case a few months later. It indicated Davies may have
abused at least two more boys at the Greenwood church before senior
pastor Mike Roy fired him.
Lee Orth, chairman of the church's
litigation committee, said KCTV's claim to have broken the story of
new abuse was "total nonsense."
"The church right away took steps…as
soon as this broke," he said. "Everybody was open about it. The
reason why there wasn't a lot of talk about it was because of the
victims," who were present in church services before the abuse was
announced.
He said the investigation was “kind
of low-key, but it was not hidden. It was talked about in the open.
It was not at all swept [under] the rug."
Orth said the church fully cooperated
with authorities and made professional counseling available to
anyone who wanted it. The abuse was a tragedy for Davies' family and
for the church, he said.
Leslie maintains he has reason to
believe Roy may have known about some improprieties before he fired
Davies, but Roy has declined to talk with authorities.
"It was mishandled," Orth said of
Roy's decision not to talk. "Mike felt bad because it happened on
his watch. He felt bad about that."
Roy hired Davies to lead music at the
165-year-old Greenwood church in 2003. They had known each other
since 1998, when they both attended Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Louisville, Ky.
Roy, who has since left the Greenwood
church, could not be reached for comment on this story. Bobby
Albers, First Baptist's associate pastor, was unavailable for
comment. Orth said a search committee has been formed to find a new
pastor.
At the time the TV station publicized
the case, David Clippard, executive director of the Missouri Baptist
Convention, said his organization has no standard practice for
dealing with clergy sexual abuse. But he noted that the MBC does
help churches run background checks on employees.
"We have equipped our churches with
the tools and the forms and the questions," Clippard said. "We have
gone to great lengths to provide our churches with information on
how to do background checks."
Ultimately, however, the individual
church is accountable for its hiring policies, he added.
Leslie said officials have not
launched a criminal investigation to determine if church leaders are
guilty of harboring Davies after they knew about the abuse.
Still, several of the churches where
Davies worked before being hired in Greenwood were open about his
sexual problems, Leslie said. After obtaining a copy of Davies'
resume and calling references listed there, Leslie said church
leaders told him they were forthcoming in warning others about
Davies' addiction to pornography and the fact that he "didn't work
well with children."
But while past employers did not give
Davies favorable job references, Davies had no problem continuing to
get church jobs, Leslie said.
"It always hits the papers when a
female teacher has sex with 14- or 13-year-old boys, but when a
pastor sexually abuses … young boys, it's kept quiet," Leslie said.
"If the first victim had come forward, it's possible that we
wouldn't have these other victims today."
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