Minister faces probe after ‘he asked girl to send explicit pictures’
Police called in as Wee Free clergyman suspended
A NEWLY-MARRIED Free Church of Scotland minister is facing a police investigation over claims he persuaded a teenage girl to send him explicit pictures over the internet.
The Rev David Macdonald, 25, is said to have befriended the girl online using a pseudonym while a divinity student in Edinburgh.
It is understood that the girl’s family complained to another minister, who alerted the church authorities.
They immediately suspended Mr Macdonald from his post less than eight months after he was appointed assistant minister at Back Free Church, near Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis.
The Scottish Daily Mail revealed last week that the shock suspension was announced from the pulpit at the Sunday service a week ago by the Rev Calum Macleod, Clerk to the church’s Western Isles Presbytery, who made it clear that the allegations facing Mr Macdonald, 25, were ‘of a most serious nature’.
Initially, the church remained silent about the nature of the allegations facing Mr Macdonald, whose wife Jayne, 24, is expecting the couple’s first child.
But last night a spokesman confirmed that police had now been called in to investigate the claims.
He said: ‘The Presbytery can confirm that on March 1, 2018, it suspended an assistant minister pending an investigation.
‘It would be inappropriate to comment any further until this process is complete. In line with best practice, the matter has been referred to the police.’
The pictures were allegedly sent while Mr Macdonald was still at divinity college and prior to him being ordained into the Church.
The girl was not under age at the time.
Mr Macdonald was one of several clergymen who featured in a recent BBC Alba documentary series entitled Bible Boys, which followed the training of divinity students at the Free Kirk’s Edinburgh Theological Seminary.
The cameras were even present to capture the scenes of celebration which greeted Mr Macdonald’s ordination at Back Free Church in August last year. A source close to the church said: ‘This is supposed to have happened while David was a divinity student in Edinburgh.
‘The story goes that he used a website to befriend a girl using a different name and asked her to send him explicit pictures of herself, which she did.
‘When her family found out about it and that he was a Free Church minister called David Macdonald – not the name he used on the internet – they were furious.’
The source added: ‘They contacted another minister threatening to go to the police and he directed the matter to the Western Isles Presbytery.’
The church is still reeling from the suicide in January of its ‘superstar’ minister and spiritual guide, the Rev Dr Iain D Campbell.
The turmoil followed the Daily Mail’s disclosure that Dr Campbell, 53, was found dead after accusations he had been having affairs with several female members of the same wider church.
The Western Isles Presbytery, ministers and elders responsible for the denomination’s congregations in the Outer Hebrides, has hired a public relations firm specialising in crisis management to handle media calls, while Mr Macdonald has not been seen in public since his suspension.
One resident, who asked not to be named, said: ‘He and his wife are well regarded in the community… this is a terrible shock.’
The Free Kirk, which advocates strict observation of the Sabbath, retains a grip on Lewis.
Church elders have recently debated ‘impure and devilish’ proposals to allow the local swimming pool to open on Sundays.
No one was available for comment at the home Mr Macdonald shared with his father Finlay and brother Iain until his marriage in July 2016. His mother, Marie, died in 2013.
His wife is from the neighbouring Isle of Harris, where her parents John and Flora Morrison run a bed and breakfast south of Tarbert.
A family member said: ‘We are definitely not going to be speaking about this.’
A Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘A report of inappropriate conduct has been received. Inquiries are at an early stage.’
‘Threatening to go to the police’