Exclusive Brethren Sexual Molestation TVNZ Scoop

I’m always a wee bit suspicious of religious groups who want to sever any connections to the outside world and live by their own doctrine, and that’s why I never vote ACT, but allegations that an Exclusive Brethren Grand Wizard has been sexually molesting girls for 4 decades is deeply disturbing to those whose trust has been so horribly violated inside a system where total control could Pavlov-dog any victim, making life a living hell. I am hoping the shame that the Police force have been recently exposed to for a similar culture of power and secrets, will prompt them to give this case the important scrutiny it deserves rather than their old boys network nods-and-winks he says/she says bullshit.

Props have to be thrown up to TVNZ’s Ben Tornquist who crucified Exclusive Brethren troubleshooter, Tony ‘Mr Wolf’ McCorkell in an interview where McCorkell denies hearing anything about sexual molestation allegations on camera, and then says when he thinks the camera is off that he has just come from a meeting where the sexual molestation allegations have JUST BEEN DISCUSSED! McCorkell then – and this is the audacity kicker - claims that TVNZ has done a hatchet job on him! Could he be any more of an Australian leader of a weird religious cult trying to deny sexual molestation allegations? Congrats to TVNZ for catching the buggers and shame on your name TV3 for not picking up the story, Exclusive Brethren caught out lying about sexual molestation allegations – that’s not news worthy?

Brethren abuse claims investigated
In a ONE News interview on Thursday, the Exclusive Brethren officially denied any knowledge of the abuse claims. The church's Australia based spokesperson Tony McCorkell, who is currently in New Zealand, said he was "not aware" of the allegations. However, after McCorkell asked the cameras to stop rolling, he admitted he had just come from a meeting where the sexual abuse claims were discussed - and said "I haven't even formulated my opinion on it yet". On Friday, the Exclusive Brethren attempted to discredit the ONE News story. "I feel it's a trial by media. I think Mr Tornquist from ONE News has done a hatchet job on the Brethren. I'm disappointed. I'm very disappointed and would urge the members of the public not to react to this issue," says McCorkell. However, O'Fee is asking anyone with knowledge of abuse within the church to contact police "If they think or they have information about people that were abused, or if they were abused...this may go back 40 years ago, we would like to speak to those people and we would urge them to come forward and to bring their stories to us".

Please note: The funniest thing is that when you drag and pull Tony McCorkell's photo off the Herald's site, it comes up 'Fat Tony' - there are some very funny behind the scenes people at the Herald!