A woman has filed a lawsuit against The Salvation Army, accusing the Christian denomination of knowingly hiring a camp music director who sexually abused her when she was a teenager.
Riley Neville filed a complaint against the Salvation Army, its Southern Territory and its Kentucky and Tennessee Division last week in the Commonwealth of Kentucky Jefferson Circuit Court.
The lawsuit claims the Southern Territory hired a man named Joel Collier around 2015, knowing that the Eastern Territory had allegedly fired him for sending sexually harassing text messages to a female minor.
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In his position as a musical director, Collier allegedly sent numerous sexually abusive text messages to Neville while she was a minor teenager beginning in 2017 and later physically abused her at a camp.
This included fondling her while she was still a minor and later sexually assaulting her after she turned 18, allegedly performing such acts in multiple locations in Kentucky and Tennessee.
“In August 2021, after reporting Collier’s sexual abuse to the Salvation Army, Riley’s parents learned for the first time that Defendant Southern Territory had known about Collier’s sexually graphic texts with the minor female at the camp in the Eastern Territory, that Defendant Southern Territory had removed Collier’s name from the Eastern Territory’s registry, and that they had hired him and placed him in positions of authority over children, despite knowing that he was a danger to them,” stated the complaint.
“Defendants are liable for the sexual abuse of Plaintiff that occurred and continued because of Defendants’ negligence and complete disregard for the safety of Plaintiff who had been entrusted into their care,” the suit adds.
“Defendants were on actual and/or constructive notice that Collier was a sexual offender because of his prior placement on the Territorial Registry and his original rejection due to information conveyed to Defendant Southern Territory by the Eastern Territory.”
Collier’s earlier applications for employment with the Salvation Army Central and Western territories were rejected based on his past conduct with female minors, the court filing stresses.
The Christian Post reached out to The Salvation Army Southern Territory for this story. The regional body did not return comment by press time.
“They’re an organization whose fundamentals are caring for and serving the most vulnerable populations,” said Neville in an interview with NBC News last week. “They can’t knowingly hire pedophiles and not be held accountable.”
Collier, who presently lives in the United Kingdom and no longer works for the Salvation Army, was not named as a defendant in the complaint.
In an email sent to NBC News, Collier stated that he had not read the allegations leveled by Neville, but that “I hope we’re able to find a swift resolution to them.”
