“Abbotsford church aide jailed for sex abuse - The Province” plus 1 more |
| Abbotsford church aide jailed for sex abuse - The Province Posted: 17 Apr 2010 12:38 AM PDT A man who posed as a church leader and "mentor" to Fraser Valley youth has been sentenced to seven years in jail for his massive "betrayal" of trust. Chad Blaine Mossing, 42, was sentenced this week in Abbotsford by B.C. Provincial Court Judge Kenneth Skilnick to seven years in jail but will serve five years and a month because he has been in custody since April 25, 2009. Mossing pleaded guilty to 11 of 22 counts of sexual offences committed against eight victims under 16, "all but one [of whom] were male and all were young persons with whom the accused occupied and abused a position of trust," said Judge Kenneth Skilnick in his written reasons for sentencing. Mossing also won the parents' trust "that he would keep their child safe and that he would not injure them either physically or emotionally," the judge wrote. "In each case, he betrayed that trust." The abuse occurred from about 1998 to 2008, and ranged from cases of "wandering hands" by Mossing during sleepovers to a "most severely victimized" young boy who suffered invasive sexual assaults lasting up to "several hours." One of the most vile aspects of Mossing's pedophilia was his violation of the children's spiritual beliefs which the judge said "he damaged [for] his own perverse gratification . . . perhaps irreparably in some cases." The judge wrote that one father said in a victim impact statement that "the accused would manipulate the children, making blasphemous comparisons between his interactions with children to those of Christ." A mother's victim impact statement to Mossing said: "You stole my child's youth, his education, his safety, his trust, his security. You taught [children] to trust in Christ and then you betrayed them. You counselled them to practise abstinence and then you sexually assaulted them. "You have shattered our faith." Crown counsel Wendy van Tongeren Harvey and Pastor Greg Elford of the New Heights Church in Mission note that in this case -- unlike some churches' past tolerance of pedophilia -- the community did the right thing. "This is where we are in 2010, where we can identify these issues so the abuse doesn't go on for decades," said van Tongeren Harvey. Mossing worked as a volunteer with the church and took youth on sports excursions. The judge paid tribute to the "courageous and exemplary young persons" who came forward and co-operated with police and prosecutors. "Despite the intense emotional pain that doing so has caused them, they have stopped a serial pedophile and have saved untold numbers of young persons from being victimized," said Skilnick. Elford said when the first parent came forward to him with his son's disclosure about Mossing, he called the RCMP. Then he made the painful decision to notify the friends, parents and youth who might have been victimized. "When I was made aware of allegations of abuse, I turned the matter over to the authorities to investigate and I worked to ensure that the appropriate pastoral care was to be available to the victims, their families and friends," said Elford. That was in keeping with the tenets of the Free Methodist Church of Canada, a Protestant evangelist group to which the New Heights Community Church belongs. The FMC, whose bishop is Keith Elford, Greg Elford's father, said in a statement it was "encouraged" that the Mission congregation followed policy, which calls for zero tolerance of child abuse within the church. New Heights is a "community" church which holds meetings in large public theatres and parks, sponsors a mission to Thailand and has a small storefront office in Mission, where it holds gatherings. But the scope of Mossing's betrayal extended far into the lives of people he befriended in more than one Fraser Valley church, and through teen hangouts, such as skateboard parks or snowboard sites. Abbotsford businessman David Faulkner, a former New Heights Community Church member and father of four adult children (none of whom were victimized by Mossing), said he had known Mossing for about 10 years when the abuse allegations surfaced. "It just blew us all out of the water," said Faulkner, who said Mossing tried to ingratiate himself by relating to youth "on their level and being a pal. Oh my Lord, I've never been so shocked by anyone or anything in my life." Faulkner said he has not lost his Christian faith, nor have his children. "Pastor Elford absolutely did the right thing in this case by going forward to the police and to the congregation, and we all support those brave young people for their disclosure," said Faullkner. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Green Lantern #53 Review - CRAVE ONLINE Posted: 22 Apr 2010 11:02 AM PDT As we are all aware, the current trend in Hollywood is to scoop up and option nearly every comic book property or graphic novel possible and turn it into a movie or television show. Of course, this has been met with varying amounts of success. For every The Dark Knight and American Splendor, we get five Constantine's and Fantastic Four's. This new feature has a lofty goal; we hope to educate those without previous knowledge of a comic property to become familiar with franchises that have recently been picked up for a film or television series. In doing so, hopefully we can train the untrained eyes to spot weaknesses in a film's development so that some day, Hollywood bigwigs will have no choice but to produce faithful and quality works based on our favorite sequential art. Our usual approach to Source Material is to garner the unfamiliar prepared enough to see a film without actually ever reading the original book. While I rather inspire you to read the original material on your own, rather than taking what I say word for word, times are tough and moolah is scarce. I can personally guarantee there will be no spoilers. If you find a spoiler, I give you permission to keep my first born. Only a couple of weeks ago, we were finally treated to the long awaited trailer for the upcoming film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a film starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, Jason Schwartzman, and Brandon Routh, releasing August 13, 2010. Based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's hit Oni Press series, the film follows 23 year old Scott Pilgrim as he learns he must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to earn the right to her heart. It sounds silly, but the source material for the movie is so rich and full of spunky character, that if done right, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World could prove to be the surprise hit of the summer. The Origin: Scott Pilgrim is, for all intents and purposes, kind of a loser. He lives in a crappy one room apartment in Toronto with his gay roommate Wallace, has no real job to speak of and plays in a band called Sex Bob-omb. His parents sold his childhood home and left to travel the world, leaving Scott to his own devices. The series itself is a collection of paperback volumes, of which five have been released, with the sixth and presumably final one releasing this summer to coincide with the movie. The film looks as though it essentially combines the first two volumes of O'Malley's series, Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. The first of these volumes is basically an introduction to Scott's weird little world in which he begins dating a 17 year old high school student named Knives Chau, only to fall gaga in love with another girl named Ramona Flowers. At the end of Precious Little Life is where we discover that Scott must fight - nay, defeat - Ramona's league of evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart. In the second volume, O'Malley explores their relationship and histories a bit further, which judging from the trailer will be a bulk of the film. The charming thing about Scott Pilgrim is in the way it breaks the fourth wall, as though O'Malley wants his characters to acknowledge that they are characters in a comic book. He even presents Scott's life as a video game, where he levels up every so often, gaining new items like a Mithril Skateboard that grants him +4 Speed, +3 Kick, and +1 Will. The defeated bad guys also leave behind coins for Scott to pick up. Pilgrim is laced with the utmost charm, so hopefully that transfers well to the film. With Edgar Wright helming, I'm optimistic. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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