The senior pastor at Surrey’s Cloverdale Christian Fellowship Church is speaking out after his son, a fellow pastor at the same church, was arrested on more than a dozen sexual assault charges.
Samuel Emerson and his wife Madelaine were arrested back in May, and were formally charged on Tuesday.
His father Randy told CKNW he’s not ready to weigh in whether his son is innocent.
“I’ve never said that. I’ve never said that he’s guilty. Either way, I’ve said that I look forward to this being settled,” he said.
“It’s been decided that it’s going to go to court, and so the day that everybody has their day in court, that’s when we’ll decide. But until then, I’m not going to say one or the other.”
Randy insists he only became aware of the allegations when his son and daughter-in-law were arrested on May 18.
He said that, as per court-imposed conditions at the time, neither has set foot in the church since then — and that Samuel resigned his position as pastor upon his arrest.
WATCH: Surrey pastor and wife charged with sex assault
The charges announced on Wednesday also have the elder Emerson defending his church’s safety checks.
Those measures include police background checks, and forbid adults to be alone in a room with either a child or a member of the opposite sex he said.
Randy also claimed the allegations came amid what he describes as “infighting” among his congregation.
“They’re saying things that are slanderous about us, they reported us to Revenue Canada, we had an audit through that… We had the police check us out, all kinds of stuff.”
The accused couple’s five children have been living with their grandparents since the pair was arrested in May, Randy said.
Samuel Emerson is currently facing 13 counts of sexual assault, 11 counts of being in a position of authority and touching a person for a sexual purpose and one count of sexual touching of person under the age of 16.
His wife, Madelaine, has been charged with one count of sexual assault, one count of being in a position of authority and touching a person for a sexual purpose and one count of threats to cause death or bodily harm.
-With files from Paula Baker