The Baptist Church is immersed in scandal this evening. Just months after the pastor and principal from Belmopan Baptist High was dismissed for having a sexual relationship with an under-aged student, tonight, one of its pastors from Frank's Eddy village is in prison, accused of having sex with an 11 year old girl, inside the church building!
And, there's more: allegations that he had inappropriate contact with 2 more girls - and had two others on a list.
It is a story about abuse of trust, but it is also a ground shaking event in a small western village where they trusted their community pastor - and now he's accused of being a pedophile, a predator amongst the flock, preying on their children.
We found out more when we went to Frank's Eddy near Jaguar Paw today:
Daniel Ortiz Reporting
The Community of Franks Eddy is trying to recover from the betrayal of trust by their spiritual leader, Pastor Julio Cesar Garcia.
He is accused of a heinous case of sexual abuse against 11 year-old female, the daughter of one of the church members.
Indications are that he had intentions of targeting as many as 5 girls from the community, but tonight, he is in prison because his 11 year-old victim decided to speak up.
Voice of Mother #1 - Her Child Was Abused
"She was getting ready to go to school. So, I asked her, and she said that yes, it happened to her. I asked her why she didn't tell me. She told me that it was because she was afraid to talk to her father or me because this happened. She said that he grabbed her by her hands and pushed her into his house. It was right there that he abused her. She told me that this happened 2 weeks ago. As soon as I found this out, I wanted to know if it was true, so I asked her again 2 more times. She told me yes every time. Immediately, I took her to the hospital, and there, they said that yes, she was abused."
Being accused of trying to take advantage of 1 little girl is bad enough, but the other mothers started investigating, and they discovered that the pastor had set his sights on 2 other girls
Voice of Mother #2 - Her Daughter Was Allegedly A Target
"She told me that when I go and clean the church, sometimes I sit down outside and speak to his wife. One of those times, he offered to teach her the instruments in there. She said that one of those times, he was trying to hug her and kiss her on the mouth."
Voice of Mother #3 - Her Daughter Was Allegedly A Target
"My daughter she always went to the church there. She just came and told me that the pastor wanted to give her a kiss on the mouth. And when she came to tell me that, I told her not to go to the church again, only if your father goes."
Those 3 girls were allegedly not the only ones the pastor apparently took an interest in. The mothers discovered that the pastor's wife supposedly found a paper listing the names of 5 girls, 3 of which he already approached.
Voice of Mother #2
"This is just what I heard; I didn't see. Somebody commented to me saying that his wife knew or found a paper with 5 names, listing the girls he was trying to do the same thing to. And on that list, my daughter's name was supposedly there, along with 4 other girls, one of which he supposedly did those things to. The wife said, 'I Know what kind of man I have, and that's I am trying to keep the children far from him.' So, if she knew, she could have said something, and this wouldn't have happened."
The wife flatly denied it. In fact, she went further and said that she doesn't even know why her husband is being accused…
Nohemi Escalon - Wife of Accused
"For me it's strange, because I never knew anything, only that police came and took him. No, no, up until this time, I haven't found anything. We just continued on as husband and wife. The police took him when we were in a meeting with other pastors. And these pastors are witnesses that the police asked me nothing."
The betrayal of this community's trust is profound, and it has created deep disquiet. They still can't accept that there are members who could be targeting their defenseless infants.
Voice of: Church Sub-Leader
"For me I feel very down, totally, before God and the Community because these things shouldn't be like this. But at the same time, we don't know what happened and we don't understand. At the same time, we have to face the decisions, and we don't know what it will bring; only God knows."
Voice of Mother #1
"This is hard for me because I am a person looking for God. I just joined the church like about 8 months ago, and we are trying to - we know that there is a God, and we are serving him with our hearts. This man is not doing the correct thing."
Voice of Concerned Church Member
"We are the members of the church. We have to have faith and build it stronger. Yes, we won't have trust anymore with other pastors, but we have to still continue. It's trials that we go through, but I don't think that we should back off. We should still continue. From ever since, I have always spoken to my girls, even though they are little, 5 and 6 years-old, but it's always good to let them know the points-of-view, straight-up. So, I will make it mandatory to talk to them more frequently, and let them know what's happening. I think that most parents are afraid to talk to children, especially if they are small. But, you need to know how to speak to them, and how to let them know what's happening. So, yes, it brings up a great point-of-view in my home especially, to my nieces any all the girls big and small in my family. We'll have to be more careful now. We have to speak to them more and let them know that not even the pastors you can trust. It's very rough. I'm very disappointed because it's someone we really have trust in, having so many kids around - because I have 2 daughters who used to really love to go to church. We would have never believed this would have been possible, but I really think that it comes down to the fact that people need to learn to speak up. From what I was hearing, people knew what was happening. They had little points-of-view that really was interesting and nobody spoke up."
The 11 year-old is accusing 46 year-old Julio Cesar Garcia of having intercourse with her on 2 separate occasions, once on October 28 in the church, and the other on November 1 at his home.
As a result, Garcia was charged with 2 counts of unlawful carnal knowledge, and this morning, he was arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate's Court before Magistrate Aretha Ford.
Due to the nature of the offences, he couldn't be granted bail, and he was remanded until his next court date, which is scheduled for January 25, 2013.
7News made numerous attempts to get a comment from the members of the Baptist Mission in Belize. We were told that the President, Ruperto Vicente, is currently out of the country, and our calls to the General Manager, Pastor Lloyd Standford, went unanswered.
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