When Michael Crawford complained to the Salvos of being abused by James Michael Brown, the church initially said Brown was not a Salvation Army soldier and it was not liable for the abuse.
He was known as "king of the kids", but beneath his charming veneer was a paedophile journeyman who infiltrated three religious groups over 20 years.Michael Crawford made a complaint to the Salvation Army about convicted paedophile James Michael BrownAfter a 7.30 investigation the Salvation Army said it would reassess Mr Crawford's claim
One of them was Michael Crawford, who in 2014 made a complaint about Brown to the Salvation Army. It took the Salvos two years to formally respond. "The facts in the police case show clearly that he was a soldier within the Salvation Army," Detective Sergeant Kristi Faber said. "They're an institution that are there to help people. They weren't helping me at all. They didn't care. They didn't want to know my story," he said."I didn't have a father figure and being a part of this church, it became very important to us, and it was a lifeline."
"Yeah definitely, he was a master groomer. I don't know if he wrote the book on it, but he pretty much groomed firstly the adults in the communities he went in to," she said. Most of his known victims of more than 20 boys were assaulted while Brown was an Anglican lay worker.The Anglican Bishop of Newcastle Peter Stuart said Brown's crimes were appalling."The Diocese of Newcastle should have known more about James Brown offending at an earlier point and taken action clearly to prevent his further offending.
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