Ex-missionary from Ohio charged with sexually abusing 4 children in Haiti

It marks the second court case against Mast, who was sentenced in Holmes County court in 2019 to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two minors in Ohio.

Mast received an early judicial release in October after serving just under six years, according to Ohio’s inmate database. As a condition of his release, he was placed on three years' supervised probation and required to complete an intensive supervision program, including sex-offender specific programming.

Court records indicate that presiding retired Judge Edward Emmett O’Farrell of Tuscarawas County granted Mast’s release based on “an exemplary record” behind bars and “most importantly, the Defendant’s stated and demonstrated remorse for the crimes he committed, and the emotional and psychological pain and suffering he inflicted upon the child victims and their families in this case.”

Mast was arrested on the federal charges on Nov. 5 and formally indicted on Tuesday. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in federal court in Cleveland.

“Crimes against children, like those mentioned in these allegations, are reprehensible," U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said in a statement. “Such appalling and morally corrupt behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We commend the work of Homeland Security Investigations and the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office, whose thorough work led to these federal charges being filed today.”

The charges are based on a U.S. law that prohibits citizens from “traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in any illicit sexual conduct with another person,” according to court filings.

The court docket indicates Mast is represented by a public defender, who did not immediately return email and phone messages seeking comment late Wednesday.

The Mast scandal came into public view in 2019 after he abruptly returned home from Haiti. In a subsequent interview with Holmes County authorities, he admitted to molesting about 30 children in Haiti between about 2003 and 2019, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by Special Agent Jason M. Guyton of Homeland Security Investigations. Details of his admission indicate many if not all of the reported victims were boys.

The federal charges accuse Mast of abusing four different minors in 2004, 2007 and 2011. One was a 13-year-old boy Mast met through his missionary work and allegedly molested in a tent, according to the criminal complaint.

The case was among those that drew attention to issues of sexual abuse in Amish and related, plain-dressing church communities such as conservative Mennonites and the Charity churches that Mast belonged to. Advocates have said victims have been pressured to forgive abusers and not to seek prosecution outside the disciplines of the largely closed religious communities.

Holmes County, where Christian Aid Ministries is based, is the hub of one of the nation's largest Amish settlements. In 2019, CAM placed two of its managers on leave amid revelations that they knew as early as 2013 that Mast had confessed to sexual activity with young men, yet kept him on the job.

A CAM spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday.

CAM's work in Haiti came into the spotlight in 2021 when 17 missionaries and their children were kidnapped by a gang. They went free later that year, some ransomed by a third party, CAM acknowledged. CAM said most of the rest escaped.

On Wednesday, Joly Germine, alleged to be the founder and leader of the gang, was sentenced in federal court in Washington to life in prison for orchestrating the kidnapping.

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