Actor Stephen Collins admits to molesting young children

[mountaineer]

TMZ

'7th Heaven' Dad Stephen Collins Confesses on tape to Child Molestation
NYPD Investigating [AUDIO]
10/7/2014 1:00 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
EXCLUSIVE


Stephen Collins -- who played the pastor/dad on "7th Heaven" -- confessed to his estranged wife he was a child molester, and it's all on tape ... a tape obtained by TMZ. And the New York Police Dept. is now conducting an active criminal investigation involving sexual contact with multiple children.

 Collins -- who is in the middle of a nasty, prolonged divorce with actress Faye Grant -- revealed to her in 2012 he had molested and/or exposed himself to several underage girls years before. Collins and Grant went to a therapist where she peppered him with questions about the incidents ... and he not only answered, he was specific.

 Here's what Collins didn't know at the time. Grant taped the therapy session. We're told her lawyer advised her it was legal to secretly record the conversation because in California you're allowed to secretly record conversations to gather evidence the other person committed a violent felony ... and molesting a child under the age of 14 qualifies.

We have protected the names of the victims Collins mentions on tape. As you listen ... you will hear Collins refer to a "disclosure" and a "list." This refers to a confession Collins had already made to his wife ... which triggered the therapy session.

 You hear Collins flatly confess to molesting an 11-year-old New York girl -- a relative of his first wife -- saying, "There was one moment of touching where her hand, I put her hand on my penis." He also acknowledges exposing himself to the girl "a couple of times" ... he says when she was 11, 12 and 13.

 Grant asks, "When you exposed yourself ... did you have an erection?" He responds, "No, I mean, no. Partial, maybe I think."

 Grant then inquires about other girls. Collins mentions an L.A. girl who lived in their neighborhood, but says he tried righting the wrong by apologizing to her years later.

 And then they talk about yet another girl. It's incredible ... Collins has trouble keeping the girls straight, but then he gets clear and confirms the incident. We're told this girl was also from New York and was between 12 and 13 at the time.

 TMZ has learned ... the NYPD is in possession of the tape, and last Wednesday 2 NYPD detectives from the Special Victims Unit flew to L.A. to interview Grant. We're told they asked her about the tape and about other potential witnesses.   

An NYPD official tells TMZ ... there is a current, active investigation. The official says there are "at least 3 victims" and the nature of the investigation is "inappropriate sexual contact with minors."  ...


Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2014/10/07/stephen-collins-child-molestation-7th-heaven-audio-tape-nypd-investigation/#ixzz3FT5zI6Km

[mountaineer]

New York Post

Actor Stephen Collins, who played a pastor dad on the long-running family drama “7th Heaven,” allegedly told his wife he molested underage girls, in a bombshell audio recording.

Collins made the shocking admissions to estranged wife Faye Grant during a 2012 therapy session that she recorded, according to TMZ.

“I told you before there was one instance where … there was one moment of touching where her hand, I put her hand on my penis,” Collins said.

Before making that statement, Collins had tried to downplay his acts with that girl, saying he had only exposed himself.

The actor referenced at least one other case of inappropriate behavior with a young girl — “the niece of a woman who lived across the way,” he said.

The audio recordings were secretly made by Grant in California, according to TMZ.

Grant would have the right to record in secret if she was gathering evidence of a violent felony, such as child molestation, according to TMZ.

At least one of the victims is from New York and NYPD detectives are investigating, sources said.

Also back in 2012, a 54-year-old woman told the NYPD that Collins had touched her inappropriately about 40 years earlier — when she was a young teen and he would have been in his 20s, a law enforcement source told The Post.

It wasn’t immediately clear how that NYPD probe was resolved.

Collins is best known for his work on “7th Heaven,” which ran from 1997 to 2006 and produced 243 episodes.

Collins, now 67, played the Rev. Eric Camden, who was raising seven children with his wife.

Collins and wife

[alicewonders]

This kind of stuff is disgusting to me, I actually have a physical reaction to reading it. 

The thing is, it is so much more common than people want to admit.  When I was a young girl - I experienced several instances with either a male relative or acquaintance - that would probably initiate an investigation these days.  When I was a teenager, I babysat for two young girls in the summer.  They told me stories of their uncle that would tell them to reach in his pocket to get some "candy".  They said he had a hole in his pocket and it wasn't "candy" they were touching. 

They giggled during the retelling of it.  I was just a kid myself and had no idea who I should tell about it, so I never said anything.  It was their father's brother, I've often wondered whatever happened to those girls. 

I was walking in the park once and had a man expose himself to me.  These people are all around us!  You just know they gravitate to where they can be around children. 

It just makes me physically ill to think about.

[mountaineer]

Thankfully, I must have lived a sheltered existence. The only such instance I can recall was when I was in my 20s and took my 18-year-old female cousin with me on a trip to Europe. We were on the Metro in Paris and a young man exposed himself. I just laughed at him and turned away - and nudged my cousin to turn away.

Thank goodness there were no creepy uncles in my family, although I'll admit there's another cousin in Indianapolis (haven't seen him in decades) who's a registered sex offender for something involving minors, probably exposing himself.

[mountaineer]

As if this story weren't strange and grotesque enough ...

Collins had incestuous fantasies: wife
By Helen Kumari
October 8, 2014 | 11:37pm
NY Post


Years before “7th Heaven” actor Stephen Collins was accused of sexually abusing three young girls, he allegedly had revolting fantasies about his unborn child, a bombshell report revealed Wednesday.

Collins, who for years played pious pastor dad Eric Camden on the hit TV series, told his now-estranged wife, Faye Grant, just before their daughter was born in 1989 that he was glad they weren’t having a boy — because he couldn’t control his incestuous fantasies if they did, TMZ reported.

“The comment you made just before I gave birth to our daughter when you said you hoped we didn’t have a little boy, because ‘you just didn’t know if you could keep his little penis out of your mouth’ was indication enough that you were sick,” Grant wrote in an e-mail allegedly sent to Collins.

The stunned wife added: “I should have followed my gut then, and then again 14 years ago, and kicked your ass to the curb.”

A source close to Collins called the new allegations “absolutely untrue.”

Collins’ attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, accused Grant of releasing damning audiotapes a day earlier, in which Collins can be heard during a therapy session admitting to sex crimes. The lawyer alleged Grant had tried to extort his client out of millions of dollars by threatening to sell the tapes.

“It appears that she has finally found an audience for this tape — not surprisingly, on the eve of the trial in the divorce case,” said Kaplan.

Nearly $14 million is at stake in the nasty, two-year divorce battle.

In court filings obtained by The Post, Grant seeks spousal support because Collins earns as much as $3 million a year — while she’s “been unable to find work.”

Some of Collins’ recent paychecks include TV roles on ABC’s “Revolution,” for which he was paid $40,000 an episode and $7,700 he pocketed for six episodes of Lifetime’s “Devious Maids.”

She estimated Collins earned $44,000 a month — a number that will plummet since he got canned from the movie “Ted 2” and on Wednesday from the ABC hit “Scandal.”

Hate to say it, but incest and molestation accusations against husbands are an all-too-common weapon of divorcing women. In this case, at least some of it seems credible - and that's bad enough.

[alicewonders]

The fact that his wife stayed with him 14 years after hearing him say that makes her complicit in anything he did during that time - whether to their children, or someone elses.  That is sick - sick - sick!

If my husband ever said ANYTHING remotely close to that - the FIRST thing that would happen would that he would have a nasty "accident" in the shower - the SECOND thing that would happen would be I would leave his sick ass that very day - and the THIRD thing that would happen would be that I would report him to the police!

How could a woman stay with a man that said something like that?  She is sick too!

[mountaineer]

 This latest allegation is just so bizarre, it's almost unbelievable. But if the incest thing is true, I agree - this woman is complicit. If she's just throwing stuff out there as part of the divorce, that's just not right.

[ABX]

I've seen a lot of comments on this where people are so disappointed or shocked because of the character he played. I want to slap the computer, quit putting people on pedestals because of who they play on TV. Even so-called 'reality' stars are just playing a character.

[Relic]

I've seen a lot of comments on this where people are so disappointed or shocked because of the character he played. I want to slap the computer, quit putting people on pedestals because of who they play on TV. Even so-called 'reality' stars are just playing a character.

It's not that people think this guy was Eric Camden. It's that they want him to be a good guy. I watched that show with my wife. This guy has such a disarming demeanor on screen that you just want to like him. Yes, we all know he's not the character he's playing, but every actor will tell you, there is a little bit of themselves that they give to each role.

We wanted Collins to be at least a good man. We want everyone to be good. Child molestation is such a foreign concept to me, that I can't even imagine what kind of monster would do such a thing. So, to find out someone you "let in your home", to borrow the old tv cliché, is a monster is shocking, and disappointing.

That shock and disappointment doesn't mean we're stupid, and don't grasp reality. It's a heinous human failing that is made somewhat personal.

[mountaineer]

Well said,  R.

[mountaineer]

Stephen Collins Being Investigated for New Molestation Claim
By Suzy Byrne
October 16, 2014 8:40 AM

Stephen Collins's troubles are mounting.

The 7th Heaven star, 67, is the subject of a new investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department's Special Victims Bureau. Following the release of his purported audio confession to molesting and exposing himself to three girls decades ago, one of the victims — who was an L.A. resident when the crime allegedly occurred — has come forward to police.

On Oct. 9, days after the Collins's audio recording made headlines, a person contacted the authorities, saying that in the summer of 1983, when she was 13, Collins exposed himself and annoyed or molested her at a home in West Hollywood. The LASD is now working with New York Police Department, which confirmed to The Insider With Yahoo on Oct. 7 that they were investigating allegations that Collins molested a family acquaintance in Manhattan in the early 1970s.

This is the third law enforcement agency involved. The Los Angeles Police Department also investigated the actor in 2012 after a woman claimed he molested her in New York and thought he did the same to one of his relatives in California. However, those allegations never amounted to charges.

On the audio recording, which Collins's soon-to-be ex-wife Faye Grant secretly taped during a 2012 therapy session, the TV star talked about three different victims. Authorities are now working to track down the third woman, whose identity has been established, according to TMZ. ...

Rest of story at Yahoo