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'My childhood was taken away' - the trail of sex abuse left by top church leaders

David Fisher
By
Senior writer·NZ Herald·
28 mins to read

Jim Williams was a man of God aged 25 when Joanne Ridge says he pulled her close, thrust his tongue into her mouth and put his hands inside her top.

She was 12. "He was fondling my breasts and I didn't even have any," says Ridge. "The shame was so great. I had such fear I was going to get kicked out of the church if I told anybody."

That was 1960. Later, Pastor Jim Williams would become New Zealand's

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