Adelaide, Australia - AN ADELAIDE police officer has been stood down from duty because he has been charged over trying to perform an "exorcism" on a teenager at a church youth camp
The Advertiser has learnt that Senior Constable Roger Sketchley was charged over the alleged incident at a camp run by the Lutheran Church, which yesterday said it did not condone such actions.
Sketchley, 28, was charged along with two other adults after allegedly trying to perform the ritual at the camp, held in the Barossa Valley in April. The police officer and at least two other adults allegedly restrained a boy, 15, after he complained of stomach pains in an incident which allegedly went on for about 12 hours.
Sketchley was charged with false imprisonment and aggravated assault after a police investigation that ran for more than a month.
A police spokesman yesterday confirmed that Sketchley had been suspended from duty while the court case proceeded.
Police could not provide further details of the other two adults charged along with Sketchley, who was off duty at the time of the alleged incident.
All three were granted police bail to appear in Adelaide Magistrates Court on a date yet to be set.
The president of the Lutheran Church in South Australia and the Northern Territory, the reverend Robert Voigt, yesterday said he was unable to comment on the specific case but distanced the church from such practices.
"The Lutheran Church does not endorse or encourage any actions which are abusive or which results in the limitations or freedoms of any individual," Mr Voigt said.
Sources told The Advertiser that Sketchley was among a group of police officers recruited to South Australia from the United Kingdom several years ago.
Last Thursday, police issued a statement: "Early this morning a 28-year-old police officer from the southern suburbs was arrested for the alleged offences of false imprisonment and aggravated common assault.
"The offences are alleged to have occurred while the officer was off duty. The officer was granted bail to appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court at a later date."
Cases involving exorcisms have rarely been brought before Australian courts, with one notable exception.
In the early 1990s, three people were convicted of manslaughter in the Victorian Supreme Court for killing the wife of a pig farmer in a botched exorcism. Joan Vollmer, 49, died in January 1993 after her husband, Ralph Vollmer, and three other members of a breakaway Lutheran sect performed an exorcism at the couple's home at Antwerp, near Horsham in western Victoria.
Mrs Vollmer died of a cardiac arrest after pressure was applied to her neck by Leanne Reichenbach and David Klinger as they tried to force "evil spirits" from the schizophrenic sufferer's body.
Reichenbach and Klinger served four and three months in prison respectively for manslaughter while Vollmer's prison sentence was suspended.
In 2007, a New Zealand woman drowned during a Maori exorcism ceremony after water was flushed into her mouth and eyes to "flush out a demon" – resulting in nine people being charged with manslaughter.
No formal documents have yet been lodged with the courts for Sketchley and his two co-accused, who are likely to appear in court within the next several months.