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“Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 19:14 (KJV)

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — the Independent Abuse Review Panel (2010)

The PC(USA)'s commissioned panel reviewed abuse on its mission fields from the 1950s to the 1990s and named nine individuals in its public final report — seven by name, two it could only describe. Each is carried here at exactly the posture the panel's own text assigns, including the one it named on a grooming concern with no report of abuse.

Subject
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) — abuse on its overseas mission fields (Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Thailand)
Issuing body
Independent Abuse Review Panel (IARP), commissioned by the PC(USA); panel members James Evinger, Carolyn Whitfield, Judith Wiley
Report
Final Report of the Independent Abuse Review Panel — October 2010 (Parts 1 and 2)
Scope
131 reports received concerning mission fields, principally 1950s–1990s; 47 individuals identified as possible offenders. The panel states it 'was not an adjudicatory body'
Posture
Commissioned independent findings (Tier 2). Nine individuals named or described in the public report; 17 more named only in non-public 'Need-to-Know' reports, which this archive does not have and does not reconstruct

The panel and its numbers

In the 2000s the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) commissioned an Independent Abuse Review Panel to investigate physical and sexual abuse of missionaries’ children and others on its historic mission fields. The panel’s final report (October 2010) covers 131 reports received: 85 allegations, 28 concerns, and 5 supporting statements, spanning five fields — Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Thailand (reports concerning India were referred back to the church, uninvestigated, for lack of time and personnel). It identified 47 individuals as possible offenders and 81 individuals as victims.

The panel’s decision table concludes that abuse occurred in 30 reports; its narrative text at one point works from “31 of these 51” concluded allegations, counting a failure-to-protect conclusion alongside. The report’s own figures differ slightly between its tables and its text — as they do again where its naming narrative says “nine” individuals were named in the public report and, in the next breath, “these 11 individuals.” This page prints the discrepancy rather than silently reconciling it: the public report’s naming entries themselves, field by field, are nine.

Of the 47: 21 were not named anywhere, 9 were named or described in this public Final Report, and 17 were named only in “Need-to-Know” reports that are not public. This archive does not possess those reports and does not guess at their contents.

The nine, at the panel’s own posture

Richard Fiete — Cameroon. A teacher at the Hope School dormitory in the early 1960s. The panel found insufficient information on one report (inappropriate kissing and hugging) and concluded “sexual abuse of a minor” on a second (fondling a child’s breast over clothing). It named him because he returned to the United States, was ordained Presbyterian clergy, and served churches in New York and West Virginia, with what it called “very credible information about two victims.” The report states he is deceased.

A second Cameroon offender — described, not named. The panel concluded “sexual abuse by an adult” against an indigenous African adult male (a 1950s incident in a mission vehicle) and states: “Further identification or naming was not possible.” No name exists in the report, and none is supplied here from any other source.

Keene Watson, M.D. — Congo. Named by the panel on a concern about potential grooming behavior (1980–1985). The panel’s conclusion is printed here in full because it limits everything else: “Grooming behavior without report of abuse. The panel received no reports of abuse naming Dr. Watson.” He was named, the panel explains, because of that concern together with a later criminal record that the report itself recites: two Kentucky convictions for first-degree sexual abuse (1991 and 1993, involving minors, with prison time after a probation revocation), and revocation of his Kentucky medical license, whose findings quote his admission of “a problem as a pedophile for the past 30 years.” Those convictions are carried here as the IARP report states them.

Samuel Shamba Warlick — Congo. Named for reports from the Methodist-Presbyterian Hostel in Kinshasa, 1985–1989, on which the panel concluded “sexual abuse by a minor” in five reports covering two victims. The panel’s own text places Warlick’s offenses in his minority — he was himself a missionary kid at the hostel — and weighed that fact, his age (at least 16), multiple victims, a repeated pattern, and his later work in youth-serving organizations in deciding to name him and refer him to his church’s session. This page carries the name with the panel’s age context attached, and adds no biographical detail.

John Morrow — Ethiopia. A non-Presbyterian teacher at Good Shepherd School in the 1970s. The panel concluded “sexual abuse by an adult” on two reports, with two further supporting statements, citing two victims’ “remarkably similar” accounts of grooming and progression, and a post-mission photography and video business giving him access to children. Named in the report and referred to his own church for possible discipline.

A second Ethiopia offender — described, not named. “Male teacher E was an Indian music teacher, stringed instruments, at Good Shepherd School in the 1970s.” The panel concluded sexual abuse by an adult on one report (a music lesson) and recorded a concern on another. It gives no name; none is supplied here.

Bernice Hase — Pakistan. A Lutheran houseparent at the Murree Christian School dormitory, 1962–1968. The panel concluded physical abuse by an adult on one report identifying at least seven incidents — punching, slapping, stomping on a child’s back, throwing a child against walls and down stairs — with three further reports outside its charter’s scope and uninvestigated. The panel noted a “clear succession of favorite targets spanning 4 years” and skill at hitting without leaving visible bruises. The report states she died in November 1996.

Charles D. Messinger — Thailand. An ordained Presbyterian minister and houseparent at the Chiang Mai boarding home in the late 1950s. The panel concluded “sexual abuse by an adult” on five of six reports. He later served in U.S. ministry and as a college chaplain. The report states he died in December 1986.

Douglas Stubblefield — Thailand. An ordained Presbyterian minister and houseparent at the Chiang Mai hostel in the late 1960s, in Thailand from 1961 to 1974. The panel concluded “sexual abuse by an adult” on one report (repeated fondling and kissing of a student), with supporting and concern reports alongside, and named him “for the sake of other potential victims,” referring him to his presbytery for possible disciplinary action.

The predecessor inquiry — and William Pruitt

The IARP was not the church’s first reckoning. A group of women reported sexual abuse by the late Rev. William Pruitt, a missionary in Congo; eight women filed allegations in Grace Presbytery in 1998, and Pruitt’s death in 1999 ended the presbytery’s investigation. An Independent Committee of Inquiry (ICI) was created in 2000 for the Congo field, period 1945–1978, and reported in September 2002. The IARP report documents two facts about how Pruitt came to be named: the ICI’s charter barred it from naming anyone it found to have abused children, and the PC(USA) itself then named Pruitt as the primary perpetrator on its own initiative (Presbyterian News Service, October 1, 2002). The church’s 2004 General Assembly apology covered the Congo incidents the ICI identified, dated 1946–1985.

A stronger formulation circulates — that the ICI found “overwhelming” evidence that Pruitt abused at least 22 girls and women — and Presbyterian News Service’s own summary of the ICI report states it “documents 48 specific incidents of abuse by Pruitt, involving 22 girls.” That formulation belongs to the 2002 ICI report as contemporaneously reported; it does not appear in the IARP text, and this archive has not read the ICI report itself. It is therefore carried here at that attribution and no stronger, pending the ICI document. Pruitt is not one of the IARP’s nine, and this page does not present him as one.

In this archive

The names above stand on this page at the panel’s posture — commissioned findings, not court judgments — and no directory entries are built from this report in this archive. The distinction matters and is this archive’s rule: an official state report’s names enter the Directory at that report’s stated posture; a church-commissioned panel’s names are recorded with their document, in full, here.

Sources

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