Full article https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...3-years-for-child-sex-abuse?int=undefined-recA Mennonite missionary from Virginia who lived in Haiti for more than a decade has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for child sexual abuse in the impoverished Caribbean nation, officials said.
James Arbaugh, 40, of the small Virginia town of Stuarts Draft is the latest American missionary to receive a hefty sentence for taking advantage of Haiti's extensive poverty and anemic rule of law to sexually abuse vulnerable youngsters.
Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of traveling in foreign commerce from the U.S. to Haiti to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a child. He was sentenced Monday.
Brian Benczkowski, who leads the Justice Department's criminal division, described Arbaugh as a "wolf in sheep's clothing."
"He posed as a selfless missionary when in reality he was exploiting his position to prey on and sexually abuse vulnerable children in one of the most impoverished areas of the world," Benczkowski, an assistant attorney general, said in a news release.
Arbaugh was arrested last year after telling a Virginia counselor that he had sexual contact with minors in Haiti. A federal affidavit filed by a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations said he told investigators that he groomed or had sexual contact with at least 21 Haitian boys.
Breaks my heart how Haiti is exploited