The young man who survived a mass church beating that resulted in the death his brother has confessed to having "inappropriately" touched his half-sister's children, CNN reports.
Christopher Leonard, now 19, testified on Tuesday in the trial of Sarah Ferguson, who is among eight members of the Word of Life church in New Hartford, upstate New York, to be charged in connection with the death of Lucas Leonard.
Christopher Leonard told the court that Ferguson found out about the touching during a so-called "counselling session" at the church in October last year.
It was during this 10-hour session, allegedly initiated because Lucas Leonard wanted to leave the church, that the two teenagers were severely beaten. Christopher Leonard survived the attack but was hospitalised for blunt-force injuries.
A videoed testimony of Grace Leonard, the 16-year-old sister of the two teens, showed her telling the court yesterday that her brothers had touched her inappropriately.
New Hartford police chief Michael Inserra told CNN on Tuesday: "The investigation did not disclose any indications of Lucas or Christopher sexually abusing any child. To the contrary, the investigators were told it would have been impossible for either of these boys to commit any inappropriate acts.
"Other than Chris stating he had 'bad thoughts' there is nothing to indicate he committed any crime. In [New York], we cannot convict anyone on an admission alone."
Earlier this month, the teens' father, Bruce Leonard, pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree assault.
Their mother, Deborah Leonard, pleaded guilty in December to assault charges.
A former member of the church described the Word of Life church as a "cult" in an interview with People in May.
"There were a lot of good things that had been going on at the church, but it slowly and increasingly got controlling," Nathan Ames, 26, said.
"People were being mentally abused over time and they'd become sheltered from the outside world as a result. It got to the point where, if you watched television, you shut the commercials off because you didn't want any external influences."
Ames added: "We were told we couldn't talk to anybody. You'd go to church, but you couldn't talk to anyone. They'd use manipulation and mind games to control people."
