Victims say perpetrators are protected – but the abused are forced to forgive their attackers
DailyMail.com
Mormon leaders are ‘covering up’ an ‘epidemic’ of sexual abuse that rivals scandals exposed within the Catholic church, victims have alleged to DailyMail.com.
The Utah-based religion has repeatedly protected perpetrators and punished those who speak out in a bid to protect its reputation ‘at all costs’, it is claimed.
Victims believe abuse is ‘rampant’, with Mormon families said to be suffering ‘extremely high rates of incest’. The Mormon church has been embroiled in several high profile cases in which it has been accused of covering up sexual abuse, but the true scale of the crisis has never before been exposed.
Their stories span decades of abuse in which ecclesiastical leaders are alleged to have ‘maintained a pattern and practice’ of hiding crimes from authorities.
It comes after a court in Arizona earlier this month ruled that church officials who knew that a member was sexually abusing his daughter had no duty to report the abuse to police because the information was received during a spiritual confession.
Victims who spoke to DailyMail.com said this was repeatedly used as an excuse for bishops to hide abuse from authorities, often allowing it to carry on for years.
Women claimed church culture acts as a breeding ground for abuse, pointing to the belief within Mormonism that local bishops – laymen with no pastoral training – are divinely called by God and led by spiritual revelations, meaning their authority cannot be questioned.
It is also alleged that church leaders have repeatedly brushed cases of abuse under the carpet to allow young men to complete missionary programs – a crucial ‘rites of passage’ trip in which Mormons are sent to spread the word of the gospel.
Kathleen Wallace, 39, who claims her abuse by a family member was kept under wraps by the church, said she believed that sexual abuse was an ‘epidemic’ within the church that was ‘just as bad as the Catholic church, if not far worse’.
The mother-of-two added: ‘I think that there’s extremely high rates of incest and sexual abuse going on in Mormon homes. This kind of abuse is rampant.’
The Mormon church did not respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com.
Abused by trusted doctor
Nicole Snow, 32, grew up in a Mormon family in Wilsonville, Oregon.
There she attended church with Harvard graduate Dr David Farley, who was also an ecclesiastical leader and ‘stake high counselor’.
As an esteemed community figure, Farley counted most of the women there as his patients.
Snow’s mother began taking her to see him when she was aged 15 after she complained of chronic stomach pain.
But under the guise of seeking to relieve her constipation, he allegedly performed an ungloved rectal examination.
He later digitally penetrated her vagina, causing ‘immense physical pain’, and suggested that he ‘break her hymen’ to ‘ensure sex was more pleasurable’, Snow claims.
Between 2007 and 2009, Farley allegedly sexually abused and harassed her on at least five occasions.
The claims are contained within a civil lawsuit filed by four women, including Snow, in October 2020, which details egregious allegations of sexual assault against the once respected doctor.
Since then, more than 200 women have come forward with similar allegations of sexual abuse against Farley, according to a letter sent to the Oregon Attorney General in September last year.
The women, many of whom are Mormon, claim that Farley used his position within the community to gain their trust, before grooming and sexually abusing them.
The lawsuit was filed shortly after Farley had his license revoked by the Oregon Medical Board.
A panel of medical professionals found he forced ‘numerous’ young girls to undergo unnecessary pelvic examinations and photographed children’s breasts and genitalia under the guise of conducting a ‘puberty study’.
Yet three of Farley’s victims, including Snow, have alleged to DailyMail.com that the Mormon church has refused to excommunicate or even hold a disciplinary hearing for Farley, despite their repeated pleas for action.
Farley retired from his Oregon practice a month before his license was revoked. But the women believe he has since moved to Idaho and then Utah, where he is still an active member of the church community, with nothing stopping him from practicing again.
‘I know of children in the area he’s living at right now who he is attending church with,’ Snow said.
‘He’s still around children gaining trust in the community. He’s a very dangerous man. We just want action from the church.’