PA- Youth minister in jail for child sexual abuse, SNAP responds

For immediate release: Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, [email protected])

A Pennsylvania youth minister has been arrested on charges of child sexual abuse and has admitted abusing her for several months. We are grateful to the witnesses who came forward with their suspicions and urge anyone else with information to come forward to police.

Brian Keith Smith was the youth minster at Journey by Grace Church and led their youth program, The Joshua Project. The victim is a 15 year old girl who joined the youth group in 2013.

We urge officials at Journey by Grace to reach out to all congregants urging them to speak up if they suspect anything and to talk to their children. They should urge anyone who saw, suspects or suffered abuse to report to police. It is possible that there are more victims suffering in silence and self blame.

(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 20,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])


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