Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990                   TAG: 9007150072
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ABUSED CHILDREN OF MISSIONARY WIN DAMAGES

One of the children had told the father's supervisor about the abuse while the family was living in Africa. The official confronted the missionary, who promised but failed to get counseling and tell his wife.

The Richmond-based board broke its promise to provide for the health, safety and welfare of the family by not telling the mother of the abuse, said John C. Lowe of Charlottesville, the children's attorney.

If the board had told her promptly, she could have obtained treatment for the children, and much of the abuse of the younger children would have been avoided, Lowe said.

The board's attorney, Lewis T. Booker, said the promise was not as specific as contended by the mother. He asked Circuit Judge T.J. Markow to set aside the verdict on the ground that the promise could not be enforced because it was not in writing and the statute of limitations had expired. Markow set a hearing for Aug. 20.

During the weeklong trial that ended Friday, the jury heard psychiatrists testify that the children have suffered many of the worst effects of child abuse: suicide attempts, sexual promiscuity, and drug and alcohol abuse.

The children, ages 17 to 22, probably will need extensive psychotherapy for the rest of their lives to combat the trauma caused by the abuse, the psychiatrists testified.

The amounts awarded - $850,000 to one daughter, $350,000 to each of the other two daughters and $10,000 to the son - reflected the degree of the abuse and the relative emotional damage they suffered.

Psychiatrists testified that the girl awarded $850,000 needs a year or two of the type of intensive psychotherapy available at only a few centers in the country at a cost of more than $25,000 a month.

That treatment would be followed by less intensive psychotherapy. The other two daughters suffered less severe emotional damage and will need less treatment, the psychiatrists said.

The son told a psychiatrist once that his father had abused him but denied it on other occasions. The father, who is serving a 12-year prison term in Alaska for the abuse of the daughters, admitted the molestation of them but denied he had abused the son.

According to testimony, the family was sent to Africa by the foreign mission board in 1976. While the missionary was stationed in Botswana and the oldest daughter was attending school in Johannesburg, South Africa, she told her father's supervisor, Marion Fray, about the abuse in the fall of 1982 or 1983.

When confronted with the allegation, the missionary told Fray he had abused the girl once two years earlier, and he promised to tell his wife and get counseling. But the abuse had been much more extensive, and the missionary did not tell his wife or get counseling.