A California church deacon has been arrested and charged after he allegedly sexually abused boys on religious mission trips under the guise of inspecting them for skin cancer, The Daily Beast reported.
Bradley Earl Reger, 67, “used his position of authority… to groom children and continually grope their naked genitals for his own sexual pleasure,” federal prosecutors said in a detention memo, adding that Reger, who “never seemed to run out of teenage boys whose genitals he could fondle under the guise of medical ‘exams.'”
Prosecutors went on to say that Reger has been “heavily involved in various Christian schools, summer camps, youth groups, and church missions”. and has “held positions as a teacher, camp counselor, wrestling coach, church deacon, youth group leader, board member of various school boards, and owner of affiliated non-profit organizations.”
Many of the boys who were abuse went on “Work and Witness” trips affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene in the city of Susanville. According an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, the abuse occurred in Poland, Ukraine, the Philippines and other countries. Some of the abuse took place in Reger’s Susanville health clinic, on camping trips, and inside cars.
“I want at least one person attached to this not to be an anonymous victim, I would like at least one real name,” victim Zack Winfrey told The Beast. “Some of the other guys are wanting to put their names to this, maybe later. But at least for right now, I’d like it if there was at least one real name on this, and we weren’t all just identified anonymously.”
“I’ve been pushing for something to happen for a long time,” he said. “And most of us had pretty much given up on the fact that anything would ever happen.”
Aside from claiming to his victims that he was just inspecting their genitals for skin cancer, he coerced victims into letting him grope them, using “concerns about… hypothermia, about chlorine eye irritation, about intestinal problems all as pretenses to conduct ‘exams’ and touch minors’ naked genitals,” The Beast’s report stated.
Read it at The Daily Beast.
