Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Talsi, Latvia · 2023

Latvia: Baptist minister and Sunday-school director convicted of abusing five girls

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Disposition and response

Material that narrows or disputes the record

Appellate history

Conviction confirmed on appeal; further review would lie only to the Supreme Court, none indicated.

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

Baptist minister and director of the congregation's Sunday school

Organization

No organization assigned

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

CORE, with the court naming it: children of his Sunday school, abused through the authority the role conferred.

Pastoral or clerical authority
Guru or spiritual-teacher authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2023-01-01 · conviction; confirmed on appeal

Kurzemes rajona tiesa (Ventspils); Kurzemes apgabaltiesa (appellate). Aivars Š., a Baptist minister and director of his congregation's Sunday school in Talsu novads, was convicted of the sexual abuse of five girls aged between seven and sixteen between August 2018 and April 2022, the court finding that he had exploited the trust and helplessness his position created. He received ten years plus three years' probation, and the Kurzeme regional court confirmed the conviction on appeal.

Documented coercion mechanisms

the court's express finding that he exploited the trust and helplessness his pastoral and Sunday-school roles created

Cited record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report NRA.lv: 'Aivars Š. notiesāts par seksuālu vardarbību Talsu novadā'.: Latvian national outlet's court report.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://nra.lv/latvija/kriminalzinas/501749-aivars-s-notiesats-par-seksualu-vardarbibu-talsu-novada.htm Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 cb389460dc799ea3c69411f47bbe1185333268180080fceafe95028c1c76e3cf
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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