Youth pastor Douglas Randall Pope of Merrywood Baptist Church was charged with four child molestation related counts. Pope is alleged to have molested a 14-year-old girl.
The Statesboro Herald reports that 31-year-old Douglas Randall Pope is charged with three counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count of child molestation. Police said he was arrested Tuesday.
Other children may be involved.
The victim advised that the inappropriate behavior and touching has been occurring over the past two years and also involved other juvenile females. Additional interviews were conducted with other juvenile females and additional complaints were received.
Let’s break this one down. Pope is a Baptist. He fat and unmarried. He attended some university courses but does not appear to have a degree. He’s only worked with children and young adults. His only qualifications are that he’s worked with kids. The victim is a 14-year-old girl (prime age for abuse). His church is of the small Baptist variety in Georgia with a very small staff. The church website has no information about the arrest and has made no statements. We don’t know if there was a background check performed or adequate safeguards in place. Conclusion - the situation does not look good for Pope. This scenario is typical for clergy sexual abuse among Baptists.
1 comments:
Douge Pope was the paster at my wedding two months before he was arrested. My husband and I only met him once before the wedding. He was refered to us by a family member. The first time I met him he was 45 min late and he showed up with his 23 year old girlfriend. The meeting went over ok but he did leave us with an uneasy feeling about him. Mostly because he seemed a little smug for a over weight man of god. We let it go because it was so close to the wedding. The wedding went ok then within 15 min of the cermony when we were in the middle of us greating our gest he wants to pull us away to sign the papers and pay so he could leave because we had alcohol. Again He was with his much younger girlfriend. My husband and I made jokes about how bad drinking was as compared to adultry. So, two months later I get the call that he has been arrested. WOW! I come from the small town that pope grew up in. I reconised him from seeing him around. The reason that this could happen is the things that makes small towns great the trust and faith in others. I am not a member of the church so I cant speak for them but my gut said that was a strange man. I really let it go because he was so over weight I thought he was just socialy aquard. I learned my lesson. I have a fat child molester in all my photos. The worse part is one of the victoms were at the wedding. He joined me and my husband knowing someone he hurt was watching and he had the nerve to judge us on our day. This is a very bad man and he had most everyone fooled. Now he is being investigated in two other towns. This was the first time he was busted. Good for the girl who turned him in. So many bad stories have came out.
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