Documentary record Bound by Fear
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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

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

evangelical church minister

Organization

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

Spiritual nexus

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

  1. 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

Primary 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.

Related record

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