Mormon Church Implicated in Sex Abuse Scandal

A lawsuit filed against the daughter and son-in-law of the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) alleges a coverup of sexual abuse stemming from incidents in the 1980’s.

“The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Salt Lake City on Wednesday by six unnamed people listed only as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe” against unnamed “Doe 1 Male Defendant” and “Doe 2 Female Defendant,” according to a Fox 13 report.

The defendants in the suit, Brenda and Dan Miles, deny the allegations.

“The lawsuit alleges that in 1985, a man only identified as ‘Perpetrator’ in the court papers sexually abused his children,” according to the report. “It also claims a 16-year-old babysitter was both a victim and perpetrator of abuse (who later committed suicide). Then it accuses the Miles of abuse.”

According to the mother of one of the victims, she reported the abuse, but the church did nothing about it, instucting her to “forgive and forget.”

“I assumed the highest leaders in the church would want to help my children heal that the perpetrators would be put in jail. I was very quickly disillusioned about that,” she told Fox 13. “Of [sic] somebody would have done the right thing the first time, the abuse would never have happened. It was pretty horrific.”

The attorney for the accused, Jim Jardine, said the allegations are false.

“There’s no truth to these allegations,” he said. “The Miles’ did not abuse these children or anyone else To do so would be out of their values, their belief system and their character.”

“These allegations were investigated in the 1980s by three different law enforcement agencies who found no evidence of any child sex abuse ring in Bountiful and filed no charges against my clients,” Jardine said.

 

 

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