In Jackson County, Missouri, 6 women have come together to accuse their former pastor, a man named Robert “Bobby” Hawk, of having groomed and abused them. About 3 weeks ago, a blog post written by one of his victims, a woman named Isabelle Davis, detailed Hawks grooming behavior during her attendance at the EPIC Church KC in Independence, where Hawk was the founding pastor. She wrote about how during a visit, he put his filthy hand on her inner thigh while the two were watching a movie. Naturally, he threatened her into silence.

It didn’t take long for other women who had similar experiences to read the post, and to reach out to Davis. This would have surfaced earlier, but it appears that when his victims originally came forward, they were bullied into silence:

 “We were shamed, told to stay quiet, and (were) pressured by many in the church, including Bobby, to say nothing,” Bounds said, as her older sister stood behind her and nodded in agreement. “That unfortunately led to these other girls up here with me right now on stage, also becoming the victims to assault.”

Now, things are a little different. The church no longer has the ability to threaten little girls, and so they suspended Hawk, who later resigned. Now the police are officially involved, and an investigation is under way. The victims are hopeful that some form of justice can prevail. With the statute of limitation on child rape, something that exists only because of intense lobbying by religious organizations, it’s difficult to know if any charges will stick. This is why the 6 women came forward, asking for any other victims to come forward. So far, and avalanche of testimonials has come flooding in, so there will no doubt be more people coming forward in the coming days.

Here’s hoping that these women can finally get some justice.