sexual abuse

A third student now claims sexual abuse by a former Olympic figure skater who coached in Irmo.

A South Carolina priest who served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston is facing federal sex crime charges stemming from allegations that he abused an 11-year-old child. A recently unsealed indictment shows 68-year-old Jaime Adolfo Gonzalez-Farias has been charged with aggravated sexual abuse of children, coercion of a minor and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Gonzalez-Farias was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in Miami on Nov. 29. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston says his record didn't raise any red flags before he was transferred to South Carolina from Chile. Gonzalez-Farias is being returned to South Carolina to face the federal charges.

South Carolina attorneys expand allegations of sexual abuse, drugs and pornography in competitive cheerleading as mothers share pain of abuse.

A lawsuit alleging the rampant sexual abuse of underage athletes at a competitive cheerleading gym in South Carolina has been amended to name six more coaches as defendants and three more accusers. The accusers — now seven female and two male — say in the federal lawsuit amended Thursday that they were sexually abused by coaches at Rockstar Cheerleading and Dance in Greenville, which is in the northwestern corner of the state. The accusers' lawyers allege that sexual abuse at the gym could date back two decades. According to the lawsuit, the abuse ranged from rape and forced oral sex to molestation and pressuring children as young as 13 to send nude photos of themselves to coaches.

A former sheriff in South Carolina has reported to prison to serve a one-year sentence for using his power and office to pressure a personal assistant to have sex with him. Officials say ex-Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis arrived at a state prison Wednesday, the day after the South Carolina Supreme Court refused to reconsider its August decision upholding his 2019 misconduct conviction.

A top committee in the Southern Baptist Convention is facing mounting pressure from within the denomination over issues related to sexual abuse. Many seminary presidents, state leaders and pastors want the Executive Committee to stop delaying and act. They want the committee to accept the terms of a third-party investigation into how it handled sexual abuse allegations. Those terms include the Executive Committee waiving its attorney-client privilege for the investigation. Attempts to waive it have failed so far and pushback is growing.

An employee with Charleston’s military college, the Citadel, is accused of giving a former cadet alcohol and pills, and sexually assaulting him. Kenneth…