The West Australian
A Perth religious group that housed rapist Jarryd Hayne without warning female members has been accused of failing to report a sex assault, blaming victims and utilising a series of troubling rituals. Award-winning reporter Annabel Hennessy investigates
A Perth-based Christian missionary group is facing serious allegations of misconduct including that leaders failed to report a sexual assault to police and blamed alleged victims for their attacks.
A special investigation from The Sunday Times into Youth With A Mission Perth can also reveal how the registered charity admits to encouraging sexual abuse victims to forgive their abusers and “repent” for any ill-will they held towards them.
Share
Hayne was found guilty in March year and sentenced to five years and nine months in prison.
In one of the more disturbing claims, a woman from overseas who attended the organisation s six-month training program aged 20 two decades ago alleges she was sexually assaulted by a fellow member during a trip.
While asleep in a bus, she claims she woke to one her fellow missionaries assaulting her. At 2 or 3am, while everyone else was sleeping on the bus, I woke up to (the other student’s) hand on my throat. He squeezed enough to let me know, I could kill you’,” she said.
The bible college Jarryd Hayne retreated to on bail has released a statement in response to a claim teenage students weren t told about his attendance until after he arrived. The Youth Without A Mission (YWAM) college in Perth has been forced to defend its decision to accept Hayne as a live-in student in 2019. Hayne was granted a bail variation to allow him to live in Perth temporarily to attend the residential, religious education course with two letters from YWAM being submitted to the court. The convicted rapist was found guilty by a jury in March of the sexual assault of a then 26-year-old woman at her Fletcher home on Newcastle s outskirts in September 2018.