Ex-church minister who admitted child sexual abuse to BBC still free years later
Posted: Wed Feb 18, 2026 9:05 pm
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2k23mlkzlo
An ex-minister of a shadowy Christian church who told the BBC he sexually abused a child in Canada is still free more than two years after he made his admission.
Robert Corfield admitted when confronted by the BBC that he sexually abused a boy, Michael Havet, in the 1980s. Corfield's was one of more than 1,100 names given to a hotline set up to report sexual abuse within the church, which has no official name but is often referred to as The Truth or the Two by Twos.
The FBI launched a probe into the church around a month after the BBC published its investigation in early 2024, but Corfield remains free in the US state of Montana despite him saying investigators visited him more than a year ago.
We have now spoken to a man who says he was also sexually abused by Corfield in 1974 when he was 11 years old - around a decade before he started abusing Michael. Corfield previously claimed to the BBC that he had not sexually abused anyone else.
The FBI did not respond to requests for comment.
Asked about Michael's case, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said it launched an investigation after it "received a report of historic sexual assaults that occurred in the early 1980s" in Saskatchewan and that its "findings were sent to Crown Prosecutors for their assessment".
The Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice said it "does not comment on whether it is reviewing cases under investigation by the police".
The Truth is believed to have up to 100,000 members worldwide, with the majority in North America.
It was founded in Ireland by a Scottish evangelist in 1897 and is built around ministers - referred to by the church as workers - spreading New Testament teachings through word-of-mouth.
One of its hallmarks is that workers give up their possessions and must be taken in by church members as they travel around, spreading the gospel. This makes children living in the homes they visit vulnerable to abuse, former members say.