Seabrook man and former youth minister pleads guilty to child rape

Staff and Associated Press
·2 min read
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SALEM, Mass. (AP) — A former youth minister has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three boys that he met through church, prosecutors said.

Russell Davis, 70, of Seabrook and formerly of Newbury, Massachusetts, was sentenced in Salem Superior Court last month to three to four years in state prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges, including child rape, according to a statement from Essex District Attorney Paul Tucker.

The victims ranged in age from 12 to 16 and the assaults occurred in Massachusetts between 1988 and 2006, prosecutors said.

Russell Davis
Russell Davis

Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall said Davis befriended young people he met through the United Methodist Church, where he served as a youth minister. Davis had also spent 20 years working for the U.S. Postal Service.

Previous story:Former Methodist pastor charged with child rape

In each case, MacDougall said, Davis offered to mentor his victims and then sexually assaulted them – sometimes offering them gifts and cash afterward.

The boys “came from homes lacking a complete family unit and, in some cases, sought assistance from the church to provide structure in their lives," the district attorney's office said.

Davis served in churches in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. He served from 1999 until 2015, according to a statement from the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church. No complaints of sexual misconduct were found during an internal review of Davis's records by the New England Conference, according to the statement released at the time of his arrest. His license was discontinued in 2015 for reasons unrelated to any form of sexual misconduct, it stated.

“Our pastors hold a position of authority and trust, and when that trust is violated, harm is done," the conference said in a statement after the sentencing. “We share the grief and sense of betrayal experienced by the victims and those close to them."

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Davis was arrested on the charges by Seabrook police in 2018.

The judge sentenced Davis to three to four years in state prison, followed by three years of probation. He also ordered Davis to register as a sex offender, receive sex offender treatment, have no contact with children under age 18 and no contact with any of the victims or witnesses in the case.

The prosecution of the case was aided by Deputy Chief Aaron Wojtkowski of Newbury, Det. Robert Adams of Rowley and Sgt. Keith Forget of Salisbury.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Seabrook man and former youth minister pleads guilty to child rape