Former Christian Aid Ministries worker Jeriah Mast of Millersburg, Ohio, pleaded guilty Sept. 8 in federal court in Cleveland to charges that he sexually abused two boys in Haiti while he oversaw a school program for CAM.

Mast was arrested on the charges days after early judicial release in October after serving just under six years for other sexual abuse crimes in Haiti.

The Associated Press reported Mast’s guilty pleas were part of an agreement with prosecutors that a prison sentence should be between 25 and 33 years, though a judge will make the final say at sentencing scheduled for Dec. 15. The initial federal indictment alleged he abused four boys in Haiti in 2004, 2007 and 2011. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss two of the charges as part of the plea agreement, though Mast admitted to the factual basis of those charges.

Mast was previously sentenced in 2019 to nine years in prison for sexually abusing two boys in Holmes County, Ohio (MWR, Oct. 28, 2019). The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported at the time that Mast’s confession to abusing more than 30 boys in Haiti between 2003 and 2019 as a mission worker with CAM influenced the judge’s sentence to go beyond the five years recommended in a plea agreement. Mast was originally charged with abuse of five Ohio minors between 1999 and 2008.

CAM, a relief agency supported by conservative Anabaptists, placed two leaders on administrative leave in 2019 after it was revealed they knew of sexual abuse allegations concerning Mast as early as 2013.