Pastor insists killer turned believer is not dangerous

A convicted child killer who is staying temporarily at the home of an evangelical pastor in Chichester, New Hampshire, says his conversion to Christianity 16 years ago has made him a different man.

And, given time, Raymond Guay said he will make this apparent.

"There's nothing I can do to put back what I've taken," said the now 60-year-old parolee, who served 35 years in prison for the abduction and murder of a 12-year-old boy in 1973.

"But I can do the best I can with what I have to work with for the rest of my life, and I will do that," he told the local Concord Monitor in his first interview since moving to the small town of Chichester.

Since Guay moved to Chichester the week before last, there has been quite a commotion both within the town and beyond.

Many Chichester residents have protested in outrage, hoping that the pressure will force federal officials to buckle as they did last year. Originally, Guay was to stay at the Watkinson Halfway House in Hartford, Connecticut, following his release last September but was transferred to a halfway house in Manchester following protests.

According to the Rev David Pinckney, lead pastor of the River of Grace Church in nearby Concord, New Hampshire, Guay would still have his job and likely his own apartment had a federal judge in California not insisted that he move to New Hampshire to finish his three-year parole.

Pinckney, whose church describes itself as “young, multi-generational, evangelical, historic, multi-denominational”, has taken a lot of heat for housing Guay but insists that Guay’s life “has been on a very different course” since becoming a follower of Jesus Christ in 1993.

Having worked with a number of prisoners over the course of his 20 years of ministry, Pinckney says he recognises when people are falsely claiming a conversion as a way to get out of prison. And unlike those individuals, Guay is “right on”, says the evangelical minister.

Furthermore, “[e]very reference and interview I have been a part of in Ray's case is enthusiastic about him”, Pinckney wrote in a public letter to Chichester residents.

“We (the Pinckney family) would not be doing this if we thought we were endangering our town, neighbours or children,” added the pastor, who said the idea to house Guay came through “divine nudges” after probation officials could not find a place for Guay to stay.

Though Guay will at most spend two months under the Pinckneys’ basement, Chichester residents are hoping to drive him out sooner.

In the meantime, residents have created a neighbourhood watch programme to monitor Pinckney’s home and are circulating a petition asking for 24-hour police surveillance.

Kenneth Smith, a father of two who lives across the street from the Pinckneys, told the New York Times that a lot of people in the town are also planning to get gun permits.

“I pulled out a hunting gun, and I’m keeping it close by,” he added.

Around 2,500 people live in the town of Chichester, located 10 miles east of Concord. About 50 residents protested Guay’s arrival last Sunday and 200 appeared at a meeting of the town’s selectmen to address the uproar.

The selectmen voted 3-0 Tuesday to ask state and federal officials to remove Guay from the area.