A seventh person suspected of abuse also was named, even though the abuse couldn’t be conclusively proven, because that man later spent time in prison in Kentucky for sexually abusing children and, according to the panel’s report, was found by the board that stripped him of his medical license to have had a 30-year history as a pedophile.
The perpetrators named in the report include one Presbyterian minister who is still alive – Douglas Stubblefield, who served as a housefather at a school in Thailand in the 1960s and 1970s, the report states. The abuse panel says it has referred its findings regarding Stubblefield to his presbytery for possible disciplinary action.
The report makes it clear that the abuse panel determined that some of the male perpetrators had a pattern of seeking out vulnerable children, and that it is possible there may be other victims in other places – including at Presbyterian churches in New York, West Virginia, California and Washington where these men once worked, as well as at Presbyterian-related colleges or at other programs for children.
In discussing the abuse panel’s report during a news conference Oct. 8, Linda Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council, and Hunter Farrell, the PC(USA)’s director of World Mission – expressed deep regret for what had happened, apologized repeatedly to the victims, and praised the courage of those willing to tell what had happened.
They did not mention the review panel’s finding that the perpetrators may have abused other people in other places. The abuse panel made it clear it was naming these men because the information could be useful to others who have not come forward, but may be victims too.
Warlick responds
One of those named in the report is Samuel Shamba Warlick — known as Shamba Warlick — who was in the late 1980s the teenage son of Presbyterian missionaries serving in Kinshasa in Congo. In the report, the panel said it found that Warlick had sexually abused at least two other boys at the Methodist-Presbyterian Hostel associated with the American School of Kinshasa, and that Warlick later abused at least one of those children again, even though the victims had immediately informed the hostel’s houseparents after they were first abused.
When each of those two victims first reported being abused by Warlick, the houseparents took Warlick home to his parents in the middle of the night, yet each time he was later allowed to return to the hostel, the report states. It says the second instance of abuse against one of those victims occurred after Warlick had already been taken home once for abusing the same child.
After Warlick returned to the United States, the PC(USA) appointed him as a volunteer in mission, serving at a YMCA program in Scotland, the report states. It says that he also worked with a Boy Scout troop in Orlando and at a Christian camp for children in Georgia, and that he spent time at Presbyterian College in South Carolina.
The review panel says it has referred its findings about Warlick to the session of the congregation of which he is a member for possible disciplinary action.
In a brief telephone interview, Warlick denied the allegations made against him.
“I tried to participate with the panel on an open basis, but they denied my right to do so,” Warlick said. “They would only allow me to participate if I agreed to sign away all my legal rights.”
Warlick said he has a lawyer, and is limited in what he can say.
But he said of the panel’s findings: “I deny the conclusion they reached, and I feel the process was flawed from the beginning. The conclusion of the panel is based on memories more than 20 years old,” and of people “who were children at the time. … We don’t feel they should have been investigating allegations where everyone involved was a minor.”
Warlick also said: “There was no presumption of innocence in the panel’s inquiries. Based on that, and their request for me to waive all rights, I couldn’t participate under those circumstances.”
Others named
Along with Stubblefield and Warlick, these men also are named in the report as having sexually abused children:
» Richard Fiete, a former teacher at Hope School in Cameroon. The report says Fiete later became a Presbyterian minister and served churches in the Albany, N.Y., area and in West Virginia. According to the report, Fiete is dead.
» Charles D. Messinger, a Presbyterian minister who served as a houseparent at Chiang Mai Children’s Center in Thailand in the late 1950s. The report concluded that Messinger had sexually abused at least five young girls. The report states that Messinger later served in ministry at First Church in Hayward, Calif., and at Walla Walla Church in Washington; worked as a chaplain and assistant professor at Hasting College in Nebraska; and died in 1986.
» John Morrow, a teacher at Good Shepherd School in Ethiopia in the 1970s, who was employed by the Sudan Interior Mission.
The report stated the review panel received reports regarding Keene Watson, a medical doctor who was a Disciples of Christ missionary in Congo from 1951 to 1962 and a Presbyterian missionary there in 1982 and 1983. The panel said it named Watson in its report because he was reported to have tickled and kissed children, in a way that made some uncomfortable. He later was sent to prison in Kentucky for sexually abusing two young girls.
The review panel also made one determination of physical abuse, committed at the Murree Christian School in Pakistan, by a Lutheran housemother, Bernice Hase, from 1962 to 1965. Hase, a missionary for six years with the World Mission Prayer League, is dead, the report states.
Two other men who the panel found to have abused children were identified by role – one in Cameroon and one in Ethiopia – because their full names were not known, the report states. Others are named in three “need-to-know” reports as possible abusers – giving the information to denominational officials should further need arise to investigate those persons.
The panel documented that abuse had occurred in 30 cases from 1950 to 1990.
Interviews held
When possible, the panel spoke with those accused of the abuse as well as to the victims. The report states that at least two of the offenders “cited abuse on the mission field as playing a role in their own subsequent behavior.”
Some of the abusers also cited stress as a factor in their behavior – including the stress of parents moving farther away or traveling more.
The report also cites a “disturbing trend” found in allegations of older brothers sexually molesting their younger sisters. “In speaking with witnesses, this type of abuse was often the last to surface,” the report states, leading the investigators to conclude that “this abuse is some of the most hidden of all that occurs on mission fields.”
Here is more detail, country by country, on what the review panel’s report found.
Cameroon. The panel’s largest investigation involved Hope School and Ononobeta Dorm (a dormitory at Hope School). The panel investigated reports of humiliation and severe punishment inflicted by two houseparents at Ononobeta from 1955 to 1965 – but said that what emerged was “a sobering, heartbreaking account of a boarding school that … received insufficient attention and resources from the U.S. mission office.”
With a large number of children, run-down facilities, too much stress and not enough money, the well-intentioned houseparents became rigid and the rules oppressive. One former student told of being unable to finish the morning bowl of oatmeal and of the houseparents presenting the same bowl of cereal at meal after meal until the child vomited into it. The child then was forced to eat the vomit.
Some of those being shamed may have then become “easy targets for other children” – and less likely to be believed if they complained, the panel wrote.
In this environment, a pattern emerged of older children abusing younger children, the report states. Some children were abused by more than one person and some perpetrators abused multiple children; some were repeatedly violated over and over, two or three times a week.
Some missionary parents felt torn between their children and the work they felt called to do. One missionary parent said “we had the attitude of ‘the Lord provides.’ The Lord would take care of them.”
The report also states that a girl at the school was sexually abused – fondled on the breast – by a “respected and well-liked” male teacher, identified in the report as Richard Fiete.
The investigation showed that “while the fondling incident with one victim may have been a one-time occurrence, the kissing and hugging behavior persisted over time. The duration of time represented in one report, the reports of multiple victims, and the progression of inappropriate and abusive behavior, from kissing to fondling, led the panel to name the Rev. Fiete in this public final report for the sake of other potential victims,” the report states.
Congo. The panel investigated reports involving two schools: the Kananga School, and The American School of Kinshasa.
The panel said a background check involving Keene Watson found he later was convicted twice of sexual abuse in Kentucky and served time in prison, for charges involving sexual contact with two girls, ages 5 to 10, the report states.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure revoked Watson’s medical license and, according to the panel’s report, the record of that revocation includes a finding of fact stating that: “Dr. Watson admitted that he has had a problem as a pedophile for the past 30 years, in which he has had some form of sexual contact with small children, both male and female.”
The panel also determined that Shamba Warlick had sexually abused at least two other boys at the hostel – fondling their genitals in the middle of the night, according to the report. Both of those victims immediately informed the houseparents, but Warlick was allowed to return to the hostel later. One of the victims told the panel he did not report a second incident because the hostel parents “had betrayed me when it was cut and dried. Why would they believe me now?”
While Warlick was a minor at the time, the panel said it named him publicly because he was at least 16 at the time of the offenses, he selected smaller, younger victims; and his behavior demonstrated “purposefulness and planning” – for example, he sought out victims in dark and isolated places and in the middle of the night.
The panel concluded that two governing boards of the hostel had failed to protect children from Warlick, because some adults who knew of at least one incident at the hostel were members of the board. “It is tragic,” the report states, that adults from the mission community did not do more to protect the hostel residents. The governing boards “had the role and the authority to keep Shamba Warlick out of the Hostel, and they failed to do this, resulting in further abuse.”
Even though Warlick’s parents lived in Kinshasa, he still sometimes stayed at the hostel.
Ethiopia. The panel investigated reports involving Good Shepherd School in Addis Ababa. The panel found that in the 1970s a teacher at the school, John Morrow, had sexually abused at least two teenage girls. Two daughters of missionaries gave statements that several times a week over the course of a school year, Morrow had kissed them, fondled their breasts and genitals while their clothing was removed, and digitally penetrated their vaginas.
The report states that Morrow seemed to select vulnerable targets and showed them special attention, and that “by justifying his behavior as normal preparation for marriage, he misled them into believing that it was desirable to acquiesce to others’ demands.”
Pakistan. The panel’s inquiry in Pakistan involved Murree Christian School.
The panel found evidence of physical abuse inflicted by a Lutheran housemother, Bernice Hase, including punching, hitting, slapping, throwing a teenage girl against a wall and down the stairs, and stomping on her back while saying: “I’m going to slap Jesus right out of you.”
The report states “the offender was very skilled at hitting and slapping in ways that avoided bruises and marks that could be seen and questioned by others.”
Thailand. The panel considered reports involving Chiang Mai Children’s Center.
The panel concluded that a Presbyterian minister who served as a housefather and a teacher at the school, Charles D. Messinger, had sexually abused at least five young daughters of Presbyterian missionaries. According to the report, Messinger made one girl repeatedly feel his penis; he touched another’s vagina; he grabbed a girl by the breasts and touched her, whispering that she was developing nicely.
The panel also documented sexual abuse at the school committed in the late 1960s by another housefather, also a Presbyterian minister.
The report identifies the housefather as Douglas Stubblefield, who came to Thailand in 1961 and served, with some breaks, at Chiang Mai until 1974. The report also states that because Messinger and Stubblefield were ministers, that “added a layer of spiritual betrayal” for some children.
Also, “one of the more disturbing aspects of these reports, taken as a group, is that other missionaries seemed to have some awareness of inappropriate behavior of both houseparents with female children, yet there is no indication in the archives that any formal action was ever taken,” the report states.
“The panel also heard indirectly that someone had taken a concern or a complaint to the Board, and that Mr. Stubblefield had been told to stay out of the girls’ rooms at night,” the report states. “Attempts to gather specific details about some of these accounts, however, were thwarted by the lack of cooperation on the part of some adult missionaries, who declined to participate in the panel’s inquiry.”
The PC(USA)’s ministerial directory lists Stubblefield as being a member of Middle Tennessee Presbytery. He did not respond immediately to a message from a reporter left on his home telephone.
