SANFORD, Fla. — A global church based in Sanford has been hit with another lawsuit by a woman saying she was abused by a missionary as a young girl.
Ethnos360, which was called New Tribes Mission before changing its name, was accused of failing to protect Kayla McClain during a five-year span in Indonesia or acting on her reports of abuse when she and her parents came forward.
WFTV does not normally name victims of sexual assault, but McClain agreed to make her identity public.
McClain’s lawsuit said she was assaulted by another missionary while her father served in Indonesia. She said the abuse happened in two different cities after her attacker followed her family.
She said she reported the abuse twice. Once was when she was 12, and another time several years ago after the church publicly apologized to a group of women who sat down for a national TV interview about their own assaults at the hands of other missionaries.
McClain said after two and a half years, she’s no closer to accountability.
“I don’t really know what it’s like to feel safe, because this has been my life since ever since my first memories,” McClain said. “They told me not to go to the police.”
Ethnos/New Tribes has been hit with a steady stream of accusations from former children for decades, beginning in the late 2000’s when accusations emerged from a boarding school in Senegal that prompted the church to do an internal investigation.
The investigation found the staff members tasked with overseeing abuse accusations had significant case backlogs and had received little to no training.
Other women came forward. In 2012, the church privately settled a series of lawsuits.
In 2013, police arrested Warren Scott Kinnell, who eventually pleaded guilty to assaulting four girls in Brazil. Kinnell had pictures of the children on his phone, which allowed for his prosecution.
For other victims, like McClain, justice has been out of reach since the assaults happened out of law enforcement’s jurisdiction.
“They have been given time and time again to reform, to improve their policies, to improve the procedures to protect the children and the individuals that are present at their church,” McClain’s attorney, Lisa Haba of the Haba Law Group, said. “They had so much notice about prior cases and prior instances, and instead of conducting real reform that would have actually helped people… she was hurt and continued to be hurt.”
Ethnos360’s attorney responded to WFTV’s questions with a statement:
“Ethnos360 takes allegations of this nature very seriously. The organization’s first concern is the well-being of the individual affected. To that end, Ethnos360 has offered and continues to offer assistance with this individual’s counseling. Ethnos360 will continue to prioritize accountability, as well as the safety of every individual entrusted to its care.
“The events described in the Complaint are alleged to have occurred nearly fifteen years ago. Due to the legal process, Ethnos360 cannot comment further on the details; however, Ethnos360 categorically denies any merit to the allegations made against it in the Complaint. As the legal process unfolds, we ask for privacy and respect for all involved, especially for the individual who has brought this claim.”
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