Author: wingsfortruth2

Wings for Truth Admin

Dan Lawty letter to Alaska friends March 2023

Dear Elders, including all Friends in the Anchorage/Mat-Su area,

Sean and I and all of us workers in Alaska received some tragic news on Thursday afternoon (March 23) about Dean Bruer. Dean was among us in Alaska from his coming to Juneau in the mid 1970’s, spent his first five years in the ministry here, then five more years (1997-2002), and then was a trusted overseeing worker in Montana/Wyoming and Oregon/S. Idaho until his death in June 2022. I’m sorry and apologize to you for delaying getting this news of Dean’s dark/unacceptable secret life to each of you. In hindsight, I should have sent a memo to each of you that day. Attached is the letter (from Doyle Smith current OR/S ID overseeing worker) that tells what we heard on Thursday.

I want to be transparent and accountable here with a welcome to you to communicate. Many of you have been very helpful to me already, and thank you for your caring advice/help/patience to/with me. One thing we want to make very clear, is that if anyone has felt uncomfortable with any of the workers you’ve been around (including me/us), we want you to feel at liberty to share that with us or other workers or friends that you trust. Also, if anyone is a victim of abuse from a worker or an elder or anyone connected to our fellowship…the police should be contacted, as this is a legal issue. We don’t want to have a culture among our fellowship that is conducive for predators to work within.

Jesus said there would be wolves in sheep’s clothing, so unfortunately we can’t always trust everyone in our fellowship…but we’re very thankful that we can always trust the Spirit of God and the words of Jesus.

We realize that much communication has been ongoing since these details of Dean have been made known. One matter I’ll mention that has been found to be inaccurate, is a Memo outlined in a red border titled, “In reference to the Dean Bruer case” from the Clackamas Co Sheriff’s Dept. I’ll copy/paste what Doyle Smith found out today from the Clackamas Co Sheriff:

There is a message, going around to many “In reference to the Dean Bruer case”. A deputy at the Sheriff’s office has confirmed there is a case number, but “since the man is dead” there is NO active investigation taking place at this time. They are referring people who call to me, and no one has called me yet.

Please pardon us if this isn’t including all of what could or maybe should be said here, but please feel free to be in touch, now, or anytime in the future.

Your brothers in Christ, Sean and Dan

New Code of Conduct for Workers and Child Safe Policy in South Australia and Northern Territory

WINGS applauds the South Australian workers for their recently completed Child Safety programme. WINGS has been advised that Police checks have been completed for all in the SA/NT ministry and all these workers have completed ministry safe training. A SA NT Workers Code of Conduct and a SA NT Child Safe Policy have been shared through all elders in elders meetings and then shared with all who attend the meetings. It appears that this has been well received by all the fellowship members. A clear zero tolerance message has been given by Wayne Dean and Graeme Dalton.

60 Minutes TV Documentary in Australia

On Sunday 21 April 2019, 60 Minutes Programme in Australia had a 25 minute feature on child abuse cases within the fellowship in Australia. It interviewed several survivors and named some perpetrators: Noel Harvey (a worker convicted of 19 charges of child sexual abuse); Ernie Barry (a worker who pleaded guilty to 5 counts of indecent assault); Chris Chandler (a worker with 9 counts of child sexual abuse); Cecil James Blyth (13 counts of child sexual abuse); Greg Aylett (sexual abuse); Carl ?; together with a further perpetrator who was unnamed due to a court order for name suppression. Allan Kitto, the New South Wales Overseer, declined to be interviewed but provided a brief comment. See youtu.be/hE76OlNwIOs

Some have commented that the programme had some inaccurate depictions and unjustly used the words ‘cult like’. However, it was informed by the memories of the victims who were interviewed, and their experience of the NSW fellowship from prior years, together with the programme’s limited knowledge of the fellowship.

Court documents make it clear that the name suppression was to prevent harm to the convicted person, primarily because of previously attempted harm by members of the public, apparently provoked by his suspended sentence and by some incorrect reporting and social media comments.

https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/5b14e8cde4b087b8baa899c9 (19 pages)
R v AB (No 1) [2018] NSWCCA 113
Catchwords:

CRIME – suppression and non-publication orders – where respondent pleaded guilty to historical sex offences – where Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 (NSW), s 15A prohibits identification of respondent in connection with criminal proceedings involving certain offences – where complainants consent to the publication of their names for the purposes of that Act – whether order under Court Suppression and Non-publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW), s 8 necessary because s 15A prohibition apparently not complied with – whether order necessary to protect the safety of respondent or his family – order not necessary
https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/5b4ecab8e4b09e9963070fce (19 pages)
R v AB (No. 2) [2018] NSWCCA 148
Catchwords:

CRIME – where respondent convicted of historic sexual offences – where Court of Criminal Appeal set aside orders of District Court under Court Suppression and Non-publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW) in relation to identity of respondent – application under Criminal Appeal Rules (NSW), r 50C to set aside orders on appeal – whether Court misapprehended facts – whether respondent denied opportunity to address particular issue – whether Court overlooked evidence and submissions regarding respondent’s psychological safety – no ground for re-opening appeal made out   CRIME – application for stay of orders pending determination of application for special leave to appeal – assessment no realistic prospects special leave be granted – fact of application for special leave alone not warrant stay, notwithstanding refusal will result in application being of no utility   CRIME – application for stay of orders pending fresh application to the District Court under the Court Suppression and Non-publication Orders Act – stay not reasonably required for, or incidental and necessary to, exercise of appellate powers under that Act or to preserve efficacy of the Court’s judgments – no power to grant stay   CRIME – application for indemnity certificate under the Suitors Fund Act 1951 (NSW) – whether appeal under Court Suppression and Non-publication Orders Act, s 14 one to which Suitors Fund Act, s 6 can apply – power to issue certificate enlivened but not exercised
https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/5c806b69e4b0196eea404f58 (30 pages)
AB (A Pseudonym) v R (No 3) [2019] NSWCCA 46
Catchwords:

CRIMINAL PROCEDURE – suppression and non-publication orders – appeal against decision not to make non-publication order – leave granted on grounds that court below materially misconstrued s 8(1)(c) of Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW) by adopting probable harm test – calculus of risk approach adopted   CRIMINAL PROCEDURE – suppression and non-publication orders – rehearing under s 14(5) of the Court Suppression and Non-Publication Orders Act 2010 (NSW) – evidence of risk of physical harm to the applicant – evidence of significant psychological harm to applicant and applicant’s family – order necessary to protect the safety of the applicant – circumstances of misreporting by media and threats to applicant – orders made

 

Articles in ‘The Age’ – Melbourne, Australia

Two newspaper articles were published in The Age on 23 September 2013 by Chris Johnston,  Senior Writer.

Sect leader to face 12 child sex counts

A Fairfax Media investigation has established senior members of the sect knew of the allegations yet promoted him, in 1991, to the senior position of ”worker”, or minister – meaning he was travelling throughout Victoria and Tasmania and staying in family homes as a ”missionary”.

Friends and enemies, truth and lies

They have no churches or headquarters, no written policies or doctrines. But this secretive Victorian-based religious sect is again in the spotlight for sexually abusing its own child members.

March 2013 update

The redeveloped WINGS website was launched in February 2013. It uses the WordPress ‘Misty Lake’ Theme, which aims to have a clear modern layout and have a format that is suitable for mobile phone and tablet usage. If the layout seems strange, we suggest that you consider upgrading your browser to the latest version.

If the print format displays the complete menu at the top of the page we suggest that you use the ‘Print This Page’ button near the bottom of the page in the ‘Share or Print’ section. It uses the technology of printfriendly.com to print a nicely formatted page, either to your printer or to a pdf file.

If you would like to read just the latest news posts on the site, you might like to use a news reader. Google Reader is closing on 1st July but any other reader can access the RSS feed which is available from the sidebar on the Wings home page, or you can link to https://wingsfortruth.info/feed/. Feedly at www.feedly.com seems to work well.

Recent changes to the site since it was rewritten include adding several convicted offenders, 2 of them historical but they had been missed from the new site:

Doug Martin 2013 https://wingsfortruth.info/breaking-the-silence-2/convicted-csa-offenders/douglas-martin/
Anthony Siegel July 2012 https://wingsfortruth.info/breaking-the-silence-2/convicted-csa-offenders/anthony-siegel/
Ray Bullick – 1997 https://wingsfortruth.info/breaking-the-silence-2/convicted-csa-offenders/ray-bullick/

The Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse started yesterday. We will post key items on the Wings website.