Church youth leader raped boy, 11, saying it was not against God’s word

MELBOURNE - A former church youth group leader from Australia, who raped an 11-year-old boy at least twice a month over two years, is said to have told his victim that the assaults were not against the teachings of the church.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Simon Antony Jacobs had repeatedly assaulted two boys 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.

Jacobs, who was then 25, had raped one of the boys, Victim A, on a regular basis from 1978 to 1980 at his parents’ home, News.com.au reported.

The District Court was told that 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, who has pleaded guilty to four charges against two boys, told Victim A it was allowable because “they were not making babies”.

Victim B on the other hand had been 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, and Victim B and his parents grew to know, like and trust him.

Jacobs groomed his victims by telling them they were special and shaved the legs and genitals of one of the boys when he started puberty, and even took “close-up and full body” nude photographs of them.

Sentencing for Jacobs is set for March 4 in the District Court. (ANI)