Youth pastor blackmailed boys into sending nude videos, prosecutor says
New Jersey youth pastor has been arrested and charged with blackmailing young boys across four states to get them to record and send videos of themselves performing sexual acts, authorities say.
Thirty-year-old Sean Higgins, who serves as a youth pastor and music leader at Harbor Baptist Church in Hainesport, was taken into custody and charged with 28 criminal counts that include first-degree aggravated sexual assault and manufacturing child pornography.
Higgins has been charged with “coaxing underage boys on social media to send him nude pictures and videos.”
The youth pastor is said to have used those nude pictures and videos to “blackmail his victims into performing sexual acts on themselves for his enjoyment.”
When a boy would send a nude photo of himself, Higgins would instantly transform and warn the child, ‘I’ve got you,’ and threaten to circulate that photo if the child did not engage in additional sexual acts on camera for Higgins’s sick gratification,” Coffina said in a statement. “The desperation of these young boys who were put in this position by this predator is truly heartbreaking.”
According to the prosecutor, the six identified victims range in age from 12 to 15. The boys reside in Alabama, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Dakota. The youth pastor’s crimes do not involve any members of his congregation or the church’s school.
Higgins also serves as a teacher at Harbor Baptist Academy, a private K-12 school that has about 75 students enrolled.
A phone call from The Christian Post to the church seeking comment on Higgins’ charges went unanswered. A response was not received by press time.
https://www.christianpost.com/news/youth-pastor-blackmailed-boys-into-sending-nude-videos.html
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[–] carmencita ago
and Cupich said homosexuality is not a cause. So he and Francis and their fiendish friends think it is heterosexual problem. Many priests and some Bishops put the number of homosexual priests in the Catholic Church possibly as high as 70%. So the 30% are causing all of the abuse? Stupid Cupich using new math again. Just like in their New Science calculations they are WRONG AGAIN.