MK forum

We have heard the term "administrative leave" given as a response that NTM might use when a current member of their mission has been named publicly on this forum as one who abused MKs.

Is this in fact being carried out?

There are seven names on the list under the Summary of Abuse thread that can still be found on the NTM website through their "Find a Missionary" option. Two of the men who are on NTM's website are accused of sexual abuse.

NTM, if you have in fact placed these people on administrative leave, I would suggest that you find a way to indicate that. As it now stands, there is no way for someone like me to tell if there has been any action taken against these people whatsoever.

Which would lead me to conjecture that no action has been taken.

When Graham Edwards, who was jailed for historical sexual abuse, left PNG, the story that was told was that he had had a mental breakdown and gone home. As I know Graham was a hard worker this made sense.
It was not until 8 years latter that the truth came out, he was in jail.
NTM Australia went to a lot of effort to cover this up and NOT on behalf of his family. Now they will not answer any questions on the matter or any questions at all.
Good luck Raz, I hope you get your answers.

It is very strange that NTM-Australia would be so secretive about Graham Edwards.

You would think they would be very relieved that a child abuser served time for his crime, and that in fact they would like to point out that this is the only known case where a former NTM missionary was actually brought to justice by a legal system.

Instead, they won't even respond to attempts to contact them.

We all wonder why ...

Indeed.

As current NTM members are named as potential abusers by alleged victims, such NTM members should be put on immediate administrative leave pending the outcome of such investigations. I recommend adding this ASAP into the child protection handbook.

NTM, for innocent people accused, such a policy would not be so painful if you didn't drag the investigations out into perpetuity.

Wonder if we paint a scenario, we might get a different look at this.

Lets say a little child (or grandchild) of a NTM leader in Sanford, suddenly exhibited a major behvioural shift. On questioning it turned out that the child had gone down to the local shops and there an incident had occured where a stranger had molested the child.

Do we imagine for one minute that the police won't be called and that an all out effort is made to find the offender? And that the child won't be handled with care and love by all concerned.

I very much doubt that is what will transpire, my gut feeling is the parents or grandparents will be baying for justice and to get the molester "off the street".

So what is the difference? Apart from it didn't happen down at the local shops, it happened in our own bedrooms and schools and it wasn't by strangers, it was people who we knew.

Maybe you've got something there, Bemused.

The child abuse that occurred in NTM happened in The Family.

Our children were not molested by strangers. They were wounded by people who were family to them.

It was more like incest. I think we could say it WAS incest.

Incest is rarely reported. It is hardly ever acknowledged or talked about. Victims are often not believed. The usual response is, "We will never speak of this again."

I think another light just turned on for me. Your post brought me some more clarity.

Studies show that incest is by far the most damaging type of sexual abuse.

No wonder no one in The Family wants to think about this or deal with it or try to make things right.

The focus goes toward prevention.

"We'll just make sure Grandpa is never left alone with our daughters again."

Thank you for your thoughts Raz, your line "we will never talk about this again", rings alarm bells for me. I've got a written version of that somewhere in my possession. It was written by my father after I confronted him about the neighbour being jailed and numerous of his other NTM "friends" being implicated in sexual abuse or the cover up of the same.

So your thought that it is incest, because it happened in "the family", is a very relevant. And your summation that this is the most damaging type of sexual abuse is chillingly accurate. Because it deprives us of the trust of even those who were put on this earth to care and love us as children. After all didn't we call our dorm parents "uncle and aunt".

As for not leaving Grandpa alone with daughters, this is unfortunately reality for some of us, because our suspicions make us very cautious of even our own flesh and blood.