‘Two by Twos’: Elderly NZ man admits abusing children after FBI probe into cult
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WARNING: This article deals with sexual abuse of children and may be upsetting to some readers.
A Northland man’s sexual offending against children dating back 60 years finally caught up with him after the FBI started investigating the Two by Twos, a religious cult he was a member of.
The investigation began earlier this year and generated a flood of reports to a hotline from 1500 victims around the world. Of the 140 perpetrators identified, 20% were reportedly from New Zealand.
Today one of them, a 79-year-old Northland man, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing four boys between 1964-1986.
William Stephen Easton’s victims were aged between 7-16 years old at the time and the offending occurred in multiple locations, including Dannevirke, Whanganui, Timaru and around the mid-North.
Easton was a member of the sect, also referred to as “The Truth”, which was founded in Ireland in 1897. It is believed to have 100,000 members worldwide with 2500 in New Zealand.
The group generally avoids publicity and rarely engages in outreach to the broader public. Its services are not advertised and recruitment is done through personal relationships rather than mass evangelism.
Content retrieved from: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/crime/fbi-probe-into-two-by-twos-cult-leads-to-northland-man-william-easton-s-guilty-plea-for-child-abuse/.
