Youth leader raped 11-year-old boy but said attacks not against God’s word – News.com.au
A former church youth group leader raped an 11-year-old boy at least twice a month over two years but told the victim that the assaults were not against church teachings and therefore OK, a court has been told.
Simon Antony Jacobs has pleaded guilty to four charges against two boys who he repeatedly assaulted while he was a youth group leader in the Church of England Boys Society (CEBS) on Sydney’s north shore during the 1970s and 1980s, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The District Court was told that Mr Jacobs, then 25, raped one of the boys, Victim A, on a regular basis from 1978 to 1980 inside Jacobs’ parents’ home.
At one point Victim A challenged Jacobs, saying he had read in Bible studies that a man should not have sex with another man, but Jacobs told him it was allowable because “they were not making babies”, the court heard.
Victim B was forced to share a tent with Jacobs at a CEBS beach camp in 1983 where he was assaulted.
Jacobs, now a management consultant, befriended the boys’ parents and hosted sleepovers for the boys and gave them gifts.
“[Victim B] and his parents grew to know, like and to trust Jacobs,” the court heard.
The court was also told that Mr Jacobs groomed his victims, telling them they were special and shaving the legs and genitals of one of the boys when he started puberty.
Jacobs also took “close-up and full body” nude photographs of the boys, the court heard.
Sentencing for Mr Jacobs is set for March 4 in the District Court.
Via: Youth leader raped 11-year-old boy but said attacks not against God’s word | News.com.au.
