Author: wingsfortruth2

WINGS Note: This correspondence was marked as Confidential / Not to be distributed, as it included the name of an alleged perpetrator. The Brave Truth have redacted the sensitive details and provided permission for this post. They comment:

On the 16th February 2024, The Brave Truth started communication with Graeme Dalton, State Overseer for New South Wales, Australia with regards to an alleged perpetrator.

We have been very clear with our correspondence to the Overseers and advised previously that will make them aware when we have either 1 Police report, or 3 victim reports without a Police report so they can uphold their own policy of removing alleged perpetrators as per their letter of 1 July 2023. In this case, we have 3 Police reports and also an email in our possession of 2 other Overseers knowing of a victim/s in 2021.

It is heart-breaking for any victim-survivor to see how these cases are dealt with and also very important for the wider ‘friends’ community to understand who they are meeting with.

We are honoured to be able to advocate confidentially for victim-survivors in these situations.

---

From: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Friday, 16 February 2024 2:31 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com; xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: Confidential: XXXXX XXXXX

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
PO Box 5275 MANLY Q 4179
Email: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org

Confidential letter for Graeme Dalton and Lynn Sherlock only.

Not to be distributed.

Dear Graeme and Lynn,

We are writing to advise you that 3 Police Intelligence Reports have been completed concerning XXXXX XXXXX of (Western NSW). This relates to historical unlawful and indecent dealings of persons under 16 years of age. We bring this notification to you in good faith – understanding we are not personally making allegations, but passing on in a private capacity that separate reports have been made.

As leaders of your church fellowship, and in line with your published written comments, we believe you have an interest in receiving this information as you may want to take specific action.

We would appreciate your confirmation of what action you take as it is important to provide confidential feedback to those who have made the reports to us.

By privately and confidentially sharing this factual information within the protection of Qualified Privilege, we’re hopeful that it will help us all to keep children and vulnerable people safe and we want to work with you as much as possible in order to do this. We anticipate by sharing this information it will help expedite this process.

Sincerely,

Jillian Hishon (for and on behalf of many concerned survivors, friends & children)

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275 Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org P: +61 489 994 566

---

From: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 21 February 2024 2:17 PM
To: xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Cc: xxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Confidential: XXXXX XXXXX

Dear Graeme & Lynn,

We are following up our earlier email concerning XXXXX XXXXX as almost a week has now passed and we have not received a response from you.

We would be pleased to hear from you by close of business this Friday (23rd February 2024) that necessary steps have been taken to keep children and other victims of sexual assault safe in the fellowship. Please confirm that XXXXX XXXXX will no longer be attending any church gatherings and the relevant elders have been notified.

It is important that we are able to relay this information to all victim-survivors for them to be assured that there is zero-tolerance, as promised by all Overseers, is being enforced. All correspondence will be added to victim-survivor Police reports.

Whilst our preference is to work with you in relation to information that is supplied to us, if this does not occur, we will have no option but to take the matter further.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely, Jillian Hishon

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275 Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org P: +61 489 994 566

---

From: Graeme Dalton <xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, 22 February 2024 7:11 AM
To: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Subject: Re: Confidential: XX

Dear Jillian

Thanks for your email and the information you have provided regarding XX.

Our intention is that we want to protect children and act on all information provided to us.

As the allegations mentioned in your email have not come directly from a survivor, I would appreciate further information in assisting us in taking action. This will enable us to comply with the Royal Commission requirements and NSW mandatory reporting requirements.

Would you please provide the following information:

1. That the survivor/s has/have given consent for me to be notified;
2. That the survivor/s has/have given permission for the matter to be raised with the alleged perpetrator;
3. The number of survivors who have made a police intelligence report;
4. The age of the survivor/s at the time of abuse;
5. Place/s where the abuse occurred;
6. The role WW in the fellowship at the time of the abuse; and
7. Timeframe of abuse.

We note your request in relation to privacy and confidentiality, and assure you that we will use this information only for the purpose of acting appropriately to safeguard children in the fellowship.

Please make any survivors aware that we have an application in to the redress scheme and have received ministerial approval, and that I am at all times willing to speak to any survivor with a mediator present, if they feel comfortable.

Regards,

Graeme Dalton

---

From: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Friday, 23 February 2024 3:09 PM
To: ‘Graeme Dalton’ <xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Cc: xxxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Confidential: XX

Dear Graeme,

Thank you for your reply to my emails.

As a result of strict confidentiality parameters here at The Brave Truth, there is very little information that can be given other than what is shared in our standard correspondence.

We appreciate your wish to comply with the Royal Commission requirements, and NSW Mandatory reporting.

In response to your requests for information, in general terms:

• We only notify you (or other Overseers) about an alleged perpetrator if when we have received full consent from the victim-survivor(s) who reported that same perpetrator to us. This is not always the case, there are instances where the victim-survivor is too fearful for this next step to be taken yet.
• We assure you that the victim-survivor understands that matter will be raised with the alleged perpetrator, and the expectation is the perpetrator will be removed from fellowship as per the statement from Overseers on 1 July 2023.
• We can and will share with you how many victim-survivors have made police reports regarding a perpetrator.
• It is inappropriate for us to give you the exact age of the victim at the time of the abuse, we can confirm if they’re under the age of 18. And if consented by the victim-survivor, we may be able to clarify if they were under the age of 10, for example.
• Disclosing the place of abuse is not required. Where we can, we may disclose if it was in a meeting setting versus a social setting.
• We can only name the role the perpetrator had in the fellowship at the time of the abuse, if the victim -survivor remembers and consents to its release.
• Timeframe of abuse is also unnecessary, but if the victim-survivor consents to this being released, we will do so.

Regarding XXXXX XXXXX, we have 3 Police Intelligence reports against him. All victim-survivors in this instance were under 18 years of age at the time of the abuse, which occurred in both Queensland & New South Wales. No other identifying information can be released.

To clarify, I would also like to assure you that we would never say there is a Police Intelligence Report if that wasn’t the case.

On the topic of Private and Confidential communications, Workers recently have proven no understanding of this legal provision, hence our letter dated 05/02/2024. This is particularly concerning in instances where Workers have immediately talked to people, disclosing information. That is very alarming in itself, but doubly alarming as they could unknowingly be speaking with a victim of that same perpetrator. It just cannot happen and because of the lax approach by a number of Workers, it has underscored how very careful The Brave Truth needs to be with what information we share. We don’t make false allegations and I can assure you, any information we share with you has come directly from a victim-survivor.

Sincerely,

Jillian Hishon

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275 Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org
P: +61489 994 566

---

From: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 7, 2024 11:02 AM
To: ‘Graeme Dalton’ < xxxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Cc: xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Confidential: XX

Dear Graeme,

As it’s almost 2 weeks since I replied to your email, I would appreciate hearing from you by close of business tomorrow (8th March, 2024) that necessary steps have been taken to keep children and other victims of sexual abuse safe in the fellowship. Please confirm that XXXXX XXXXX will no longer be attending any church gatherings and the relevant elders have been notified.

It is important that we are able to relay this information to all victim-survivors – for them to be assured that there is zero-tolerance being enforced, as promised by all Overseers. All correspondence will be added to victim-survivor Police reports.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind Regards,

Jillian Hishon

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275
Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org
P: +61 489 994 566

---

From: xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, 8 March 2024 8:11 AM
To: ‘The Brave Truth Aus & NZ’ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Subject: RE: Confidential: XX

Dear Jillian,

Thanks for your email and the matter with XX is still progressing.

Kind regards,

Graeme

---

From: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 13 March 2024 1:36 PM
To: xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Confidential: XX

Dear Graeme,

Further to information I have shared with you earlier, Xxxxx Xxxx and Xxxxxx Xxxx were made aware of accusations against XXXXX XXXXX in 2020. 1 am in receipt of an email sent to Xxxxx on 8 August 2020, to which he replied on 10th August 2020 saying he would be making Xxxxxx Xxxx aware. They were given details of victims to contact.

Also, (NSW) Police contacted me after you’d been to see them recently. I was grateful for the opportunity to let them know about the letter written on 1 July 2023 from Australian & New Zealand Overseers with regards to contacting you if there was anything to report and exactly what part The Brave Truth plays in this and also shared information with him about the very current International FBI Investigation.

Please let me know ASAP how things are progressing with XXXXX XXXXX so I can let the victim-survivors know that this is being taken seriously.

Kind Regards,

Jillian Hishon

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275
Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org
P: +61 489 994 566

---

From: The Brave Truth Aus & NZ<bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Wednesday, 20 March 2024 10:14 AM
To: xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Confidential: XX

Dear Graeme,

Can you please advise by COB today 20th March 2024 that the necessary steps have been taken to keep children and other victims of sexual abuse safe In the fellowship. Please confirm that XXXXX XXXXX will no longer be attending any church gatherings and the relevant elders have been notified.

It is important that we are able to relay this information to all victim-survivors for them to be assured that there is zero-tolerance being enforced, as promised by all Overseers. All correspondence will be added to victim-survivor Police reports.

Kind Regards,

Jillian Hishon

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275
Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org
P: +61 489 994 566

---

From: xxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: Friday, 22 March 2024 1:59 PM
To: ‘The Brave Truth Aus & NZ’ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Subject: RE: Confidential: XX

Dear Jillian,

In reference to this email the matter with XX is still progressing.

Kind regards,

Graeme

---

From: xxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 2:21 PM
To: ‘The Brave Truth Aus & NZ’ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Subject: re XX

Dear Jillian

I refer to our email correspondence of 22/02/2024 and 29/02/2024.
Noting that we are guided by the Royal Commission recommendations to establish plausibility, and in the absence of an allegation direct from a survivor or having further information of the nature previously requested, I am unable to take the matter further.
If you are able to provide the information requested in my email of 22/02/2024 I will review the matter.

Kind regards

Graeme

---

From: The Brave Truth AU & NZ <bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2024 11:03 AM
To: xxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Cc: Wayne Dean <xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: re XX

Dear Graeme,

Thank you for your email of 2nd April 2024.

The information we have provided from victim-survivors of xxxxxxxxxxxx is plausible, including the information about him that was provided after he was appointed as an elder, to Wayne Dean and then Graham Snow in August 2020. The matter was clearly investigated then by the relevant Overseers and some action was taken.

In relation to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse we note your reference to plausibility (Recommendation 16.52). This recommendation references the religious institution’s complaint handling policies. Other recommendations refer specifically to complaint-handling policies and procedures:

• Recommendation 16.5 – requests all religious institutions implement the 10 Child Safe Standards which reference the requirement to have effective complaint-handling policies and procedures
• Recommendation 6.6 – Standard 6 requires all religious institutions to have effective, transparent complaint-handling systems, policies and procedures in place
• Recommendation 16.41 – requires all religious institutions to make provision for family and community involvement by publishing all policies relevant to child safety on its website
• Recommendation 16.51 – all religious institutions’ complaint handling policies should require that, upon receiving a complaint of child sexual abuse, an initial risk assessment is conducted to identify and minimise any risks to children
• Recommendation 16.54 – requests religious institutions to apply the same standards for investigating complaints of child sexual abuse whether or not the subject of the complaint is a person in religious ministry

We have been advised by members of your church (a number of whom directly support TBTA) that your complaint handling policies and procedures have not been developed or published. As a result, it is unclear how complaints are handled, how investigations are conducted and how decisions are determined.

In our view, this is unsatisfactory given the seriousness of the problem in the fellowship and the comprehensive nature of the Royal Commission’s recommendations which were made over six years ago.

Unfortunately, there is little evidence at this point that child safety is embedded in any meaningful way in the leadership, governance and culture of the fellowship (Child Safe Standard No. 1 of the Royal Commission recommendations). It is also clear that there will be a progressive trust deficit if cases that are brought to your attention continue in this manner.

We acknowledge it is your crisis to manage as you see fit, however, we will let victim-survivors know your stance in this and forward this correspondence directly to the FBI to add to their investigation.

Kind Regards

Jillian Hishon & Ross Bowden

The Brave Truth Australia & New Zealand
P.O. Box 5275
Manly Q 4179
E: bravetruth@thebravetruthaunz.org
P: +61 489 994 566

---

WINGS Note: We have been advised that the workers/overseers believe that they have not been given sufficient specific information to act against the alleged perpetrator, and that even the Police reports might have insufficient details.

We encourage prompt and open communication between overseers and people reporting allegations.

From: Cynthia Liles <cynthia@aftt.org>
Date: Sun, Apr 7, 2024 at 12:40 PM
To: Kent Williston <Email redacted>, Rob Newman <Email redacted>
Cc: Lauren Rohs <Email redacted>

Kent, it has come to my attention that a Jay Wilson survivor, [Name1 redacted], has emailed you THIRTEEN times. Rob, I understand you have been cc’d on two of those. It is my understanding B has not received one response from either one of you. You are walking by the wounded and bleeding in the ditch. I’m not sure how you sleep at night.

Regarding the [Name2 redacted] allegation – no, the facts of the allegation do not need to be clarified. There is no mistake and the survivor is not an undependable source. I have confirmation [redacted] (will) further corroborate the facts of this allegation. You should know by now that I do not release the name of an alleged perpetrator unless I am confident in the merits of the allegation.

I am astounded at the lack of humanity on the part of the ministry. Surely you can do better.

Cynthia Liles
The Advocates for the Truth Team
advocatesforthetruth@gmail.com
Survivor Hotline: (503)386-4634
Contact Us — Advocates For The Truth

---

From: Rob Newman <Email redacted>
Date: Tue, Apr 9, 2024 at 9:18AM
To: Cynthia Liles cynthia@aftt.org

Cynthia,

For a number of reasons, this will be our final response to your communications. If you have information about past or ongoing criminal activity, we implore you to report it to the proper authorities. We remain willing, as always, to cooperate with the authorities in any investigations which are the result of your reports. If you choose to send us adequate details, we will report it to the authorities.

Rob

---

WINGS absolutely supports the reporting of allegations to authorities. That is necessary and appropriate. However it is not sufficient. Counselling and support for the victim and close family is necessary. The local and wider Church needs clear communication, to protect families and the integrity of all members, and in contemplation that there may be other victims. The alleged perpetrator should not attend meetings where the victim or their family or any other children may be present. The Church can not pass all responsibility to law enforcement agencies. The front line of responsibility lies with families and Church leadership – elders, workers and overseers.

Failure to act is being an accessory to a crime. Protecting children should be a priority.

Subject: Special Meetings

Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2024 20:09:41 -0700

From: Mary Jo VanDermyden

To: Jennika Alexander; Joe Alexander; Sally Alexander; Lois Austin; Ken Beckman; Trude Bergh; Margaret Blair; Cortney Blanchard; Maja Boren; Scott Boswell; Virginia Boyd; Heather Boyd; Laura Brist; Brian Buckingham; Trisa Chavez; Jill Christianson; Pam Conrad; Richard DenHerder; Marilyn Denio; Shirley Doolittle; Dena Easley; Neil Evans; Kimberly Floyd; Ted Foster; Teri Foster; Brian Frandsen; Reta Fuhrman; Nate Galuza; Evelyn Gerlund; Debbie Gillette; Jeff Gillie; Andrea Gronley; Kara Grow; Ryan Grow; Brett Hammett; Heather Hansen; Susan Hansen; Mililani Hatada; Heidi Havlicek; Harold Hilton; Joyce Jackson; Craig Jacobsen; Monica Jantzef; Lily Kirschvink; Esther Layman; Lori Layman; Joe Layman; Robin Layman; Jath Lazaro; Jaime Lucero; Nhu Ma; Thien Ma; Brett Major; Mark Mannlein; Corlé May; Karleen McDowell; Edith Moreno; Lauren Morton; Dan Nejely; Rob Newman; David Olson; Donovan Olson; John Parish; Linda Passage; Marian Pitcher; Tiffaney Sandon; Barbara Stearns; Sara Stickland; Larry W. Taylor; Karen Tenniswood; Claudia Toppin; Lisa Vandenberg; Ronda Visser; Tamara Wagner; Bill Walker; Susan Weichert; Kent Williston; Jonathan Wright; Dick Wulf; Kelsay Yung; Robyn Hill;
(CA/AZ.NV staff)

Hi Sally, Kent, Harold, Rob, et al,

With special meetings coming up, I have the same question I had this last fall… are pedophiles, or anyone with allegations, welcome to the meetings?
If they are, I will not be attending.

If you want a safe environment, may I suggest:

Have Elder monitors at the doors of each meeting place with a list of all that have allegations of CSA or SA….

Have a plan for their removal….

Make each one on the list aware that if they violate these boundaries, there will be consequences….

Every special meeting needs to have the same, comprehensive list of perpetrators of evil….

In hope something will be done,

Mary Jo VanDermyden

---

WINGS Note: All email addresses have been redacted.

E.S. was charged March 28, 1994 by Woodstock, NB, RCMP and sentenced August 15 1994. [Redacted]

[Redacted]

[Redacted]

[Redacted]

[Redacted]

At WINGS, we are concerned with the ongoing lack of understanding of the dangers of allowing known or credibly alleged child sexual abusers to participate in intimate fellowship gatherings. Denying access to abusers from children is not an indictment of their relationship with God, it is simply a risk management tool.

We encourage any survivors who have strength to step forward, so workers could begin to understand the importance of protecting children from this person and any other perpetrators.

WINGS Note April 3, 2024: A number of paragraphs that were Published 2024/03/27 at 7:25 am have been redacted because of complaints from E.S. and Family that:

This post is absolutely false and corrupt.

… paid for his crime, the actual law of the Canadian Government handled his crimes. And now, 30 years later, you all are thinking you can just open up all the old scars and convict him again? You have no idea what you have done and how you are actually hurting more people then you think you are helping.

Your so called “facts” aren’t even true, the ones you have listed on the write up …

WINGS will always retract/correct any errors and apologize. We are deeply committed to accuracy and have asked for details as to what is incorrect. In the meantime, we have redacted some of the peripheral details from the original post. Depending on what clarifications are received, if any, the original paragraphs may be reinstated.

WINGS Note: John has a cousin with the same name. Please don’t confuse the two different people.

In April 2023, Rob Newman, Overseer of CA/AZ/NV/HI, advised that John was asked to step aside from the ministry as workers had received several credible allegations of unacceptable sexual behavior, including a complaint of inappropriate touching of a minor, which has been reported to the authorities. See https://wingsfortruth.info/2023/04/25/letter-by-rob-newman-overseer-of-california-re-removal-of-john-vandenberg-from-the-work-april-2023/

Further information was posted at https://wingsfortruth.info/2023/05/18/john-vandenberg-clarification/

A note recently issued to California staff (March 8, 2024) says:

Rob requested to notify you that we received the sad, shocking news that our friend and brother John VanDenBerg died today in a construction accident by Puget Sound in Washington state.

He and Kent Kingman had been working in a house that Kingman’s purchased, and 2.00PM PST today part of the roof collapsed. One of their sons who was there (fortunately not underneath when it came down) lifted the beam off his Dad, but John was gone.

Life-Flight transported Kent to a Seattle hospital. His wife Donna said that Kent was really banged up and that he was going to be okay.

No funeral details at this time.

---

Since August 2023, there have been rumors that that John Vandenberg was “cleared by the FBI” prior to his passing or that others have been “cleared by the FBI” after a visit with the FBI. This is not correct as the FBI does not “Clear” anyone. Their job is to determine if there is sufficient information to prosecute. If there is, that is passed on to relevant legal authorities to try the case in court. The court system determines guilt or innocence. Even lack of a guilty verdict does not mean the person didn’t do the deed, it may mean there simply wasn’t sufficient evidence presented to meet the legal bar for the guilty verdict.

The rumor may have started because John (and two other alleged perpetrators) was subject to a short evaluation by an unknown professional, and deemed “low-risk”, according to church leadership in California – Rob Newman, Richard DenHerder, and Harold Hilton.

This situation is explained clearly in a recent letter to CA/AZ/NV/HI workers:

---

Dear CA/AZ/NV/HI workers,

I am writing with a concern regarding some misinformation that is making the rounds, for at least a second time. I am writing to help you all to understand the full impact of these statements, so that you may be better informed if you choose to reshare incorrect information. This is in regards to John VanDenBerg being declared innocent, by various professionals per the various rumors. I understand you’ve now been made aware that this declaration of innocence simply isn’t correct; there’s no possible way for this to be done outside of our justice system (and certainly not by the executive branch of our government, such as the FBI).  The original rumor I heard was several months ago and apparently originated from John’s engagement in a recidivism risk assessment process with a forensic psychiatrist. This relates to the controversial practice Rob has sometimes used, hiring a forensic psychiatrist to evaluate the risk of future harm by putting someone with accusations or convictions back into meetings. Forensic psychiatrists are normally used after the court proceedings have concluded guilt, and the forensic psychiatrist’s evaluation is used as a sentencing duration recommendation. If John went through this evaluation and was deemed ‘low risk’ (something he had shared with others some months back), the evaluation itself first presumed his guilt on the accusations used in the risk evaluation. So I’m still at a loss as to how any declaration of innocence has this source, but this seems to be the origin of John’s exoneration claims both recently and in the past.

I wonder if you’ve considered what John being innocent would mean, the ‘good news’ as it was referenced. If John is innocent, it means all his accusers are guilty of malicious slander. While John’s accusers may be currently faceless to you, they are not faceless to Rob. Some of the accusers are also not faceless to me. As a result, I know they include people currently in fellowship and in homes you’ve stayed in, perhaps even recently. They include elders’ wives you’ve been in fellowship with. If John is truly innocent, these same people are all vicious liars. Would this be a better conclusion on the matter? Would it be better that one former worker’s innocence comes at the cost of many of the friends’ guilt? I find the idea that so many of the friends would be malicious liars also chilling – there is no ‘good news’ scenario here.

The people I know brought their accusations to Rob out of concern for the children in the fellowship, and because Rob solicited this information. They do not want to be known publicly out of shame for what happened to them (even though they bear no fault), and out of fear of being vilified by those who cannot fathom believing John was capable of harming children. And this would happen regardless, as there are people today who still can’t believe Ruben Mata’s guilt. By propagating a declaration of John’s innocence, the trust these survivors put in Rob (and by implication the ministry as a whole) has been betrayed. Their words have now been tried and found false per this rumor, the horror of their childhood experience declared a fantasy. This misinformation can have serious consequences for these survivors, including triggering migraines, vomiting, depression, and even suicidal ideation. These words can have severe consequences for all survivors who hear them, not just those alleged to be victims of John.

The sad reality is that there will be no definitive arbitration of truth on these matters. Most accusations will never see their day in our imperfect court system. Therefore, our community will live in perpetuity with one of two terrible truths being reality; that these accusations mean either we live amongst malicious liars or among predators of children — or both. In most (probably all) cases, we will never know the full truth. So we have no choice but to move forward without truly knowing guilt or innocence. The best we can do is to operate in a way that gives full consideration and care to the possibility of truth existing on both sides of these accusations.

Thank you for your consideration of these concerns, and for your help in preventing further propagation of harmful messages to the many survivors among us.

With appreciation,

Steve Paddon