Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Reformed and Presbyterian Solomon Islands · 2019

Solomon Islands: Australian mission director and pastor jailed for indecently assaulting girls supported by his mission

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor, reverend and Director of SWIM (Small Workshop in Mission), a mission of the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia

Organization

SWIM (Small Workshop in Mission), Christian Reformed Churches of Australia

Spiritual nexus

Rietveld was the pastor and director of the mission that financially supported the victims' families, giving him standing and unsupervised access to the girls as a trusted religious authority within the small mission community; the allegations did not surface until after he left the country in 2012.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2019-08-01 · guilty plea and sentence

    Magistrates' Court, Solomon Islands. Principal Magistrate Felix Hollison sentenced Australian missionary Rev. Kevin Rietveld, 72, to a final term of three years' imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault against four underage local girls, committed between 2010 and 2012 while he was Director of SWIM, a pastor and reverend in the mission, and the girls' families were financially supported by the mission. Individual sentences of six to twelve months produced a head sentence of four years two months before deductions for the totality principle and time in custody.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • mission director's authority over girls whose families received the mission's financial support
  • pastoral/reverend standing within the mission community

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'MISSIONARY JAILED', Solomon Star News, 2019.

Solomon Islands national press report of the Magistrates' Court sentencing, naming Rietveld, his SWIM directorship and pastoral role, the seven counts, the four victims financially supported by the mission, and the three-year final sentence.

regional press charging report 'Solomons' missionary charged with indecently assaulting young girls', RNZ Pacific, 2019.

Reports Rietveld's arrest and charging, his 1998-2012 tenure as SWIM director, and the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia affiliation.

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