The FBI has launched an investigation into allegations of historical sexual abuse within a Christian sect after former members spoke out about harrowing assaults.
The religious movement, which has no official name but is known to some as ‘Two By Twos’, is being investigated for years of alleged sexual abuse.
The FBI’s Omaha field office said they are seeking help identifying victims or people with knowledge of the religious group.
In a press release, they said: “Others outside the group have often referred to the group as ‘2×2,’ ‘The Way,’ ‘The Truth,’ and ‘The Church Without a Name,’ among others.”
The latest development comes after an investigation by the BBC last month which examined allegations of child sexual abuse.
Known as “Two by Twos”, the movement was started by a man named William Irvine, seen here in Ireland in the late 19th century.
The outlet met with a former minister, Robert Corfield, who admitted to them that he had sexually abused a boy, Michael Havet, in Canada in the 1980s.
Havet, now 54, told the outlet that he was abused from the age of 12, saying, “People called me ‘Bob’s little sidekick.’ I felt dirty and I still feel dirty.”
After abusing him, Havet said Corfield would force him to kneel and pray at his side.
He added: “I had to work hard to overcome that and find my prayer life again.”
When confronted, Corfield admitted to the child abuse allegations, telling the BBC: “I have to admit it’s true.”
According to survivor group Advocates for the Truth (AFTT), Corfield is one of more than 700 alleged perpetrators who have been identified by a hotline.
The group said more than 1,500 survivors called its hotline and used its therapeutic resources.
The group was founded last year by Cynthia Liles, Lauren Rohs and Sheri Autrey, who plan to file cases against those on their list.
According to the group, the approximately 700 perpetrators are located in 21 countries around the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Russia.
The survivors’ group welcomed the investigation, saying in a statement: “The FBI’s investigation brings validation and potential justice to survivors who have been silenced by their community for generations.”
“A community that should have surrounded survivors with unconditional love, safety and community care.”
In 2013, another of its leaders, named Jerome Frandle, pleaded no contest to “knowingly failing to report suspected child abuse or neglect.”
A man, named Jason Lennox (pictured), who was an active member of the organization from 2012 to 2015, was also convicted of sexual abuse of a child in 2018.
The sect is believed to have up to 100,000 members worldwide, mostly in North America.
Originally founded in Ireland by William Irvine in the late 19th century, William claimed that he was chosen by God to deliver a special revelation which he referred to as the “Alpha message.”
He began to implement a series of very strict rules for his followers, which he claimed were given to him by God, and used the regulations to control almost every aspect of the members’ lives, including how they dressed, how they acted, and what music they listened to.
When Christian officials found out what he was doing, they announced that they wanted nothing to do with his ridiculous teachings and expelled him from the church, but that didn’t stop William.
The group continued to hold meetings, but they moved underground, and instead of doing so publicly or in an actual church setting, they held their events in members’ homes.
For more than 100 years, the religious sect has continued to grow in secret, even after William’s death in 1947.
Tava Zahorka Nicholson previously told how she grew up with parents who were part of the ‘cult’.
speaking to daily point Last year, she said she was sexually abused by four different male members as a child, one of whom touched her inappropriately “more than 100 times.”
Dean Bruer, pictured, who passed away in June 2022, is also said to have been a “sexual predator.”
She claimed that her childhood was so traumatic that she blocked out most of it, and it wasn’t until she spoke to a therapist years later as an adult that she remembered what had happened to her.
“I don’t remember or remember my childhood to this day, I remember fragments,” he said.
She also alleged that none of the men who touched her inappropriately were being investigated by police or the group’s leaders, despite “multiple people” speaking out against them.
A former member, named Heather, who also spoke to the outlet, explained that each state has something known as an “overseer,” who assigns a pair of preachers, known as “workers,” to each area of that state.
Since they are not allowed to have their own home, workers usually stay in members’ homes. And since two of them always travel together, the organization is often known as Two by Twos.
‘Conventions’ are held once a year and involve thousands of members gathering to ‘worship together’ over several days.
In 2013, a supervisor named Jerome Frandle pleaded no contest to “knowingly failing to report suspected child abuse or neglect.”
He was sentenced to four days in jail and 100 hours of community service in Michigan, where he worked for the church.
A man, named Jason Lennox, who was an active member of the organization from 2012 to 2015, was convicted of second-degree sexual conduct with a minor and sexual abuse of a child in 2018 in Pima County, Arizona.
He admitted to raping “a very young girl at least three times between 2007 and 2011,” a local Arizona media outlet reported at the time.
Another former supervisor, named Richard Schober, told the Daily Dot that he voluntarily cut ties with the group in the ’60s because he “knew it had a problem.”
“I knew I had a problem and I left because it wasn’t the place for me in children’s homes,” she said.
He was later found guilty of indecent liberties and admitted sexually abusing his daughter.
Last year, a letter written by a supervisor named Doyle Smith was leaked, confirming that he had discovered that another supervisor, named Dean Bruer, who died in June 2022, had been a “sexual predator.”
Daily Dot reported that there is no record of criminal charges being filed against Dean, but said police confirmed there was a file for him. They did not disclose any other information.