Penny had to explain it to her, she said. Humiliated, Claire didn’t know what the word meant. Kenneth Carpenter left the room, she said, and Penny asked her if her boyfriend had ejaculated inside her. “Have you two had an intimate relationship? Have you had sex?” Claire recalled Kenneth Carpenter asking. Then he flipped his Bible to Acts 5 and recited the story of Ananias and Sapphira, two early Christians who were struck dead by God after lying in church. When it was her turn, Claire said the Carpenters sat her down in Kenneth’s office at his large brown desk. The 18-year-old met with the Carpenters first and told the pastor he and Claire had had sex, she said.

The next morning, both Claire and the 18-year-old had separate private meetings with the Carpenters at the church. He picked her up and, she said, they were pulled over by an officer who made them call their parents, who came and picked her up. Later that fall, he persuaded Claire to sneak out of the house late one night. “When you have sex before marriage in that (Apostolic) world it was almost like you were damaged goods,” she said. She told Knox News she never told a soul until she read about Abbott's arrest earlier this year. Soon afterward, the 18-year-old man threatened to tell church members the two consensually slept together if she revealed what happened. “I was just thinking like, get me out.' Teen says pastor did not report statutory rape allegation You know, like what are what are we doing? I just remember I couldn’t get out. And I remember I was thinking this has gone way too far. And I couldn't … I couldn’t get out of the room,” she said, crying. “I remember you know, he was, you know, very, very touchy or whatever.

His mom was home, he said.īut his mom wasn’t home. One afternoon, Claire told Knox News, the two were out driving and the 18-year-old suggested stopping by his apartment to pick up something. Knox News also saw school yearbook photos of Claire and the senior together at what appears to be a school formal. Knox News spoke with a woman who was friends with Claire at the time, and she confirmed she knew about the relationship when it was happening. After a few months, Claire’s parents started trusting him and allowed her to ride with him alone. They would go out to eat with groups from the church. He would come to her house, and the two would hang out. “Like, you know, you like each other and that's how it is.” “He started liking me and in that culture there it doesn't matter your age,” she said. Knox News is protecting her identity because she says she was a victim of a sexual assault.) Like many girls in the church, Claire was encouraged from an early age to have a boyfriend, so when an 18-year-old senior started showing her attention, it didn’t seen odd to her even though she was only 12. Since 1965, Tennessee law says everyone is a mandated reporter, meaning anyone with reasonable cause to believe a child is being abused must immediately report it to local law enforcement or the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services. 'Yet there are clear insinuations that the church had some legal duty regarding those matters. 'Your questions contain allegations from three anonymous women of events alleged to have occurred in ( a list of years has been redacted Knox News to protect the identities of the alleged victims), two of which involve serious allegations known to the women’s parents against 18-year-old boys who were not acting on behalf of First Apostolic Church,' Trent said.

Tyler whetstone knoxville news sentinel