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Baptist Priest Arrested In Topeka Kansas for Raping a Child.
By Sarek
Troll Kingdom Times-Minneapolis
A Baptist minister who has been the focus of some of the most shocking anti gay protests nationwide was arrested Thursday in Topeka Kansas on three counts of raping a child.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, 76, was charged with regularly abusing a boy over a seven-year period -- sometimes in the church confessional. He was arrested without incident at his residence in kansas.
The victim, now 24, was not named in the complaint. He allegedly was molested from 1983 to 1990, beginning when he was 6 years old and a student in a weekly Christian doctrine class taught by Phelps.
Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht said Thursday that the young man approached authorities earlier this week after extensive media coverage of a civil lawsuit against Phelps by another alleged Phelps victim, 24-year-old Thomas Haessig.
“Almost on a weekly basis, Fred Phelps would come to take not only (the latest alleged victim) but others from that class for ‘talks,”’ Hecht said.
The priest allegedly took the young students, all male, either to the rectory, the bathroom or the confessional.
“That is where the abuse took place,” Hecht said.
The description echoes accounts offered by Haessig, who also was a religious education student of Phelps.
Hecht said the priest told the victim that if he reported the abuse, no one would believe him. “He was 6 years old and fond of Phelps,” the district attorney explained.
Coverage of the sex abuse trial and conviction in January of former priest John J. Geoghan -- also assigned to the Boston archdiocese -- brought a flood of painful memories to Heassig and others who claim they were abused by Phelps. Haessig’s civil lawsuit forced the church last month to release more than 1,600 pages of documents about Phelps.
The records contained sexual abuse complaints against Phelps dating from 1980. According to the documents, Phelps was present at the organizational meeting of what later became the North American Man-Boy Love Association.
Phelps’ attorney in Topeka did not return a call seeking comment.
Topeka police spokesman Sgt. Dan Ward said Thursday that detectives called Phelps from outside his residence and told him they had an arrest warrant. He invited them inside and did not protest when they placed him in handcuffs, Hecht said.
By Sarek
Troll Kingdom Times-Minneapolis
A Baptist minister who has been the focus of some of the most shocking anti gay protests nationwide was arrested Thursday in Topeka Kansas on three counts of raping a child.
The Rev. Fred Phelps, 76, was charged with regularly abusing a boy over a seven-year period -- sometimes in the church confessional. He was arrested without incident at his residence in kansas.
The victim, now 24, was not named in the complaint. He allegedly was molested from 1983 to 1990, beginning when he was 6 years old and a student in a weekly Christian doctrine class taught by Phelps.
Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht said Thursday that the young man approached authorities earlier this week after extensive media coverage of a civil lawsuit against Phelps by another alleged Phelps victim, 24-year-old Thomas Haessig.
“Almost on a weekly basis, Fred Phelps would come to take not only (the latest alleged victim) but others from that class for ‘talks,”’ Hecht said.
The priest allegedly took the young students, all male, either to the rectory, the bathroom or the confessional.
“That is where the abuse took place,” Hecht said.
The description echoes accounts offered by Haessig, who also was a religious education student of Phelps.
Hecht said the priest told the victim that if he reported the abuse, no one would believe him. “He was 6 years old and fond of Phelps,” the district attorney explained.
Coverage of the sex abuse trial and conviction in January of former priest John J. Geoghan -- also assigned to the Boston archdiocese -- brought a flood of painful memories to Heassig and others who claim they were abused by Phelps. Haessig’s civil lawsuit forced the church last month to release more than 1,600 pages of documents about Phelps.
The records contained sexual abuse complaints against Phelps dating from 1980. According to the documents, Phelps was present at the organizational meeting of what later became the North American Man-Boy Love Association.
Phelps’ attorney in Topeka did not return a call seeking comment.
Topeka police spokesman Sgt. Dan Ward said Thursday that detectives called Phelps from outside his residence and told him they had an arrest warrant. He invited them inside and did not protest when they placed him in handcuffs, Hecht said.
