Lay-Preacher – now there’s an appropriate name if there ever was one

The disturbing and bizarre sex-life of a New Zealand lay-preacher, was exposed to public scrutiny in District Court dispositions last week.

The lay preacher, who also ironically moon-lighted as a marriage guidance counselor, is facing claims he sexually abused and stalked two of his ex-wives and a stepson.

The man, whose name, job and church role is suppressed for now, is now facing trial early next year on seven counts of sexual violation, six counts of indecent assault and 11 other charges relating to his former wives. There are also two indecency charges relating to his stepson.

The preacher claims all three aggrieved parties conspired together as part of a vendetta.

However The District Court said there was enough evidence for him to face trial.

His first wife told the court they began having marital problems due to his sexual demands and sort help with Church elders. At one of these meetings church elders basically rubber-stamped his desire for ‘sex on demand’ by telling her there was religious justification that "my body belonged to my husband".

In what must be one of the corniest demands for sex every presented to a court the first wife alleged her ex-husband propositions involved putting his hands on her and saying "Be healed in Jesus name." If sex did not result, he was alleged to have repeated the action until it did.

After separating, she claimed he apologised for the sexual assaults, saying his problem & justification stemmed from a sexual relationship with his mother as a teenager.

The second wife alleged that among the assaults she was raped in a spa pool in front of another family member.

Her son also claimed to be abused by the ‘man of God.’

Wife ‘two’ said she too went through the sham church-led marriage counselling, claiming she was told that if she refused her husband sex then he was free to perform a sex act with her against her will.

You can be sure there will be more sordid details to come-out next year when the full trial is set to start, along with the name of the dysfunctional church involved.

New Zealand Sunday School Teachers Engaging in Animal Sex (no bull, just canine)

Yes, my headline is provocative but bestiality isn’t something that hits the mainstream New Zealand media that often, but it’s been in the headlines twice in the last few months, under very similar circumstances.

In July, Raphael Giuseppe Caccioppoli, 37, who had been a member and Sunday school teacher with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was sentenced to five years jail down in Invercargill.

Included in Raphael’s long list of convictions were (amongst other things): performing an indecent act on two boys aged 10 and 12 years old, sexual violation, indecent assault and committing an act of indecency on a dog.

The court was told the Mormon Church knew Caccioppoli had sexually offended against boys, but did not tell The Police. In fact the Church was made aware of his offending way back in 1998.

Then last week there was the case of the Dunedin plumber & bell-ringer.

The former Master of the Bells at Dunedin’s First Church, David Hockley, was jailed for 7 ½ years for prolonged and predatory sexual offending against a young girl.

The victim was 13-years-old, when the offending started, an A-grade pupil with a dream of becoming a veterinary surgeon, but after she was raped and sexually abused, her school grades declined dramatically.

The Dunedin court heard how Hockley befriended the financially struggling family, ingratiating himself with them to gain access to her. At the time, she and her mother both taught Sunday school and Hockley asked if he could take her to church to teach her to ring bells, as it would be good exercise.

The rest of the story you can guess, but with one little embellishment.

As part of his pre-rape ritual, Hockley would stimulate himself (little imagination needed here) to pornographic videos.

His preferred subject matter was bestiality, which his victim was forced to watch.

As with the case in Invercargill, Dunedin’s First Church was ‘aware’ of the allegations but they stood by their man, even allowing him to teach others, right up to the point Hockley plead guilty to the charges.

The two cases that show striking similarities (a.) both pedophiles were God fearing Sunday School teachers, pillars of their communities, exploiting their position of power (b.) when their long-term offending came to the attention of their respective Churches, both parties opted to bury their heads in the sand rather than alerting authorities, thus allowing the offending to continue unabated (c.) both sicko’s got their kicks engaging in animal sex.

Some questions remain unanswered, like:

- Which version of Noah’s Ark fable did children learn when these guys were running classes!?

- Should Mormon’s from Southland be forth-with known as members of The Church of The Latter Day Saint Bernards?

- Spooky thought that there may be a Dunedin Second Church? If so, what have their ‘flock’ (had to include that thinly veiled pun somewhere, this is a Kiwi blog after all) been up-to, bearing in mind the level of deviancy that’s going on, at their more illustrious name-sakes?

Last but not least, what the hell was wrong with sheep the rest of us Kiwi’s manage to get by with, eh?!

I ask you, what's the country coming to, when sheep have to play second fiddle to dogs in our childrens Sunday School Classes?