Church leader said he wanted the claims to "go away"
A church registered as a charity is being probed by the regulator after a voluntary youth leader was convicted of sexual abuse.
Lauren Middleton volunteered for the River Church in Banff, which is run by Harvest Ministries Limited, before she was sentenced in March to 200 hours of unpaid work, placed on the sex offenders register, and given a five-year non-harassment order for touching a 14 year old member of the church.
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator is investigating the church for allegedly failing to alert it under its notifiable events process.
Charities are duty bound to inform the watchdog if they become aware of abuse allegations or criminal investigations.
The teenager was repeatedly sexually touched by Middleton, who was 28 at the time, between August 2022 and January 2023.
However, leaders at River Church Banff did not raise concerns about Middleton’s behaviour despite being aware from September 16, 2022, finally contacting police on February 2, 2023.
The victim’s parents have accused church figures of caring more about protecting the public image of the church than their son. They claimed that concerns about grooming were repeatedly “downplayed” by leaders.
The boy’s mother said: “OSCR is showing the leadership lacking from the church throughout this hellish ordeal, which was allowed to unfold behind closed doors without appropriate scrutiny and accountability for far too long,” she said. “We hope that the conduct of all the church figures who failed our son will finally be scrutinised, forcing them to be accountable for their actions or inaction.”
Reporting of the story in the Press and Journal included an audio recording of Rob McArthur, the lead pastor, telling church staff they “must not speak about this in a public setting when it’s uncovering people because what it’s doing is it’s dragging the church down”.
McArthur, 40, also said the matter was “putting person against person” and “causing division”, adding: “I won’t have that in the church.”
Further previously unreported Facebook messages detail an exchange between the victim’s mother and a church staff member, in which the mother recounts comments allegedly made by Joe Ewen, a 77-year-old founding elder.
The messages claim Ewen expressed a desire for the issue to “go away, I want it to disappear”, during a meeting. The mother said she felt Ewen was “clearly favouring poor distressed Lauren and her family” and had shown “no concern” for her son.
When asked about the mother’s claims, Ewen told the newspaper: “Well, that might have been her interpretation of it”, adding that he was “not denying anything”.
A spokesperson for OSCR said: “OSCR has opened an inquiry into Harvest Ministries Limited in response to concerns raised in recent media coverage.
“As part of our standard process, we will gather all relevant information to determine whether any regulatory action is required.
“In line with our policies, we are unable to comment further while the inquiry is ongoing.”
