HERTFORD, N.C. (ABP) — A North Carolina Baptist camp director arrested in July and charged with two counts of sex offenses against a child now faces additional felony charges.
A grand jury in Perquimans County, N.C., handed down four additional indictments Nov 5 for Stephen Carter, 50, a former missionary for the Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board who directed Cale Retreat and Conference Center in Hertford, N.C., from 2002 until his arrest July 1.
The new charges are for felony first-degree sex offense of a child, a Class B1 felony punishable in North Carolina by up to life in prison, and felony indecent liberties with a child, a Class F felony punishable by up to 20 years.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Johnson told the Perquimans Weekly newspaper that allegations against Carter involve three different victims. Johnson is free on $80,000 bond. No trial date has been set.
Rob Roberts, associational missionary for Chowan Baptist Association, which operates the summer youth camp in the northeastern part of the state, said Carter is on administrative leave with pay, his status since the original charges were made.
"The association is trying our best to be wise and be caring for everyone touched by this situation," Roberts said in an e-mail. We are praying for him, his family, and the children (and their families) involved in this entire situation."
Roberts said the association is praying "that the situation will be quickly and clearly resolved."
Carter, who has said he is innocent, served as a Southern Baptist missionary in Belize from 1997 to 2001 through a short-term mission program called International Service Corps.
Wendy Norvelle, associate vice president for mobilization at the IMB, said in July that before his arrest administrators were unaware of any allegation of child sexual abuse by Carter "either prior to, during, or after his service with IMB."
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.
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