Australia: Exclusive Brethren man convicted of sexually assaulting two girls he was responsible for under sect welfare arrangements

Proceedings

1. 2007-02-16 · conviction and sentencing

   Penrith District Court, New South Wales, Australia. Lindsay Ronald Jensen was convicted of four counts of indecent assault and one count of sexual intercourse without consent against a girl aged nine at the time of the offending, and later received an additional one-year sentence on 14 April 2007 for aggravated indecent assault against a second girl, aged twelve, also within the Brethren community. He was sentenced to a total of six years with a three-year non-parole period, becoming eligible for parole in December 2010.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• position of trust and welfare responsibility over the girls assigned by the closed community
• Brethren doctrine of separation isolating members from outside reporting channels and non-Brethren authorities
• internal Brethren investigation that dismissed and sought to discredit the older victim's complaint, followed by temporary readmission of Jensen's family before disclosure reached non-Brethren school staff