Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Cohuna and Burkes Bridge, Victoria, Australia · 2023

Australia: evangelical minister Christopher Coleborn jailed for abusing a boy at his own home during a church youth camp

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

evangelical church minister

Organization

Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Burkes Bridge (near Cohuna, Victoria)

Archive classification

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

Coleborn was the ordained minister at the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Burkes Bridge, when he first abused the boy at his own home in the late 1990s. Five years later he abused the same victim, by then 18, a second time while the victim was attending a church youth camp held at Coleborn's home — the camp setting and his ministerial authority over the victim were continuous across both offences.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2023-11-10 · guilty plea and sentence

County Court of Victoria, Australia. Pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a boy under his care, supervision or authority, and indecent assault; sentenced to imprisonment for up to three years and eight months, with a minimum of 23 months before parole eligibility.

Documented coercion mechanisms

minister's authority over a boy 'under his care, supervision or authority'
repeat access years apart, first as a child, then again as a young adult on a church youth camp
use of his own home as an extension of the camp

Cited record

Sources

national newswire court reporting criminal disposition and nexus The Canberra Times / AAP, 'Evangelical minister jailed for child sex abuse' (Nov. 10, 2023).: Reports the County Court of Victoria sentence, the guilty plea, the church-camp setting of the second offence, and the judge's finding on Coleborn's position as a church leader.
national newswire court reporting corroboration The Canberra Times / AAP, 'Evangelical church minister admits to child sex abuse' (earlier plea report, 2023).: Earlier wire report on the guilty plea and details of the church-camp offence and same-sex-attraction context the judge later addressed at sentencing.

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://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8419142/evangelical-minister-jailed-for-child-sex-abuse/ Corpus classification: national-newswire-court-reporting; evidentiary role: criminal-disposition-and-nexus. SHA-256 d79ec9545e8b5148e5d9cbcac04aa4dde2b240a41b9dbf5ca6666aa040493f47
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8354976/evangelical-church-minister-admits-to-child-sex-abuse/ Corpus classification: national-newswire-court-reporting; evidentiary role: corroboration. SHA-256 65f6d24a016128bd7ced356bb722c58727d6ac31579f464d3c23820bff9dac18
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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