![]() ![]() He believes it stopped only because he was getting older. The abuse went on for three or four years Adam estimates Anderson abused him 30 to 45 times. Eventually, Anderson would strip fully naked and masturbate while lying next to Adam in his bed. On overnights, at the rectory and now at his mother’s home too, Anderson would enter Adam’s room, reach into his pants, and fondle him. But as the work progressed, so did the abuse. ![]() Adam began mowing the lawn at Saint Edward-and also at Anderson’s property west of town, where the priest’s mother lived. While Adam slept, Anderson would sneak in and rub the child’s penis over his clothes. That’s when he began spending evenings at the rectory. He enrolled in the third grade at Saint Edward, where Anderson was pastor. ![]() ![]() “Adam” was 8 years old when his family moved to Chillicothe in the late 1970s. Both men carry the memories of Anderson’s abuse with them to this day. These survivors spoke to the Attorney General’s investigators about their experiences-and their disappointment with the Diocese of Peoria’s responses. But for at least two young children, an innocent request to do yard work turned into sleepovers at the rectory-and those sleepovers turned into repeated sexual abuse at the hands of a predator priest. When the lawn at Saint Edward in Chillicothe needed to be mowed, Father John Anderson knew just whom to ask-the altar servers. ![]()
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