Claims Mormon area authority 70 helped a convicted child sexual abuser

[drumdude]

The new lawsuit names the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the convicted sex offender (PB), the former seventy / mission president (Phil) and his wife, and an LDS bishop as defendants.

Despite knowing about PB's history of sexually abusing children and Phil's efforts to get PB removed from sex offender registries, the Mormon church assigned Phil to be a mission president and paid for PB to visit Phil in Madrid, Spain, where PB groomed and molested a child, according to the lawsuit.

FLOODLIT has purchased copies of court documents in a King County, Washington criminal case that was sealed from 2017 to 2024, showing that PB was convicted in 2015 of multiple child molestation charges. At the time of his conviction, PB was 16 years old.

The 2025 lawsuit says that in 2015, while PB was still a registered sex offender in Washington and Utah, he met with a Mormon bishop to be interviewed in preparation to be ordained as a priest. The bishop approved the ordination, the suit says.

According to the lawsuit:

"During this time, when [PB] was on probation, [Phil] was a member of the Seventy in L.D.S. CHURCH [...] [Phil's wife] and [Phil] had been in communication with senior leadership in L.D.S. CHURCH members in the first or second quorum of the Seventy. [Phil's wife] and [Phil] consulted with these leaders in the L.D.S. CHURCH about [PB]’s conduct, as well as his criminal case and how to proceed. In fact, [PB]’s criminal conviction, probation, and registration requirements were active barriers to [Phil] pursuing his calling of Mission President in Spain. [Phil] was not able to go to Madrid to fulfill his calling as Mission President until [PB]’s criminal case and his requirements were all resolved."

Phil was president of the Madrid, Spain LDS mission from 2018 to 2021.

At the end of 2019, Phil and his wife invited PB to visit their home in Madrid "to see their Mission work, and spend Christmas and New Years with them." The suit says the Mormon church purchased and paid for PB's travel to and from Spain.

While in Spain, PB groomed and sexually molested a small child, according to the complaint.

From 2020 to 2023, PB allegedly continued to molest the child during visits to the child's home in Utah.

As of 2023, Phil was a Mormon stake patriarch, the suit says.

In 2024, PB was charged in Washington and Utah with felonies related to child sexual abuse. One of the victims was the same child PB allegedly molested in 2019 in Spain and from 2020 to 2023 in Utah. The lawsuit says PB molested the child for the first time in late 2014, when the child was an infant.

There are currently 108 other cases like this being tracked:
https://floodlit.org/civil-result/civil-ongoing/

But remember, chief Mormon apologist and noted clown show enthusiast DCP says that it’s not a big deal.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

To all the Church leaders: You get zero credit for being against abuse. No one is for abuse! You need to apologize for the role you all play/played in the abuse continuing when it could have been stopped if you had reported it correctly or if there were adequate protections in place. The Christlike thing to do is apologize and do everything in your power to never let this happen again. I'm not holding my breathe. Pretty disgusting.

[Dr. Shades]

Piecing together the clues, it looks like the child PB molested in Spain was [Phil]’s child. If so, I wonder if [Phil] regretted having worked so hard to get PB off the sex offender registry.

[I Have Questions]

Piecing together the clues, it looks like the child PB molested in Spain was [Phil]’s child. If so, I wonder if [Phil] regretted having worked so hard to get PB off the sex offender registry.

That was the conclusion I came to about who the child was. He actively (if unwittingly) facilitated the abuse of his own grandchild. Reading through the notes it seems the abuser was his own brother, the child's great uncle.

Phil Bussey was an LDS church area authority seventy and mission president.

In 2025, a lawsuit against Bussey and the Mormon church said Bussey helped a convicted sex offender (Paydan Georgy Bussey) be removed from registries in Washington and Utah in order for Phil to be able to become a mission president.

https://floodlit.org/f/f0010/

My understanding of that paragraph is that Phil Bussey needed to remove his brother's name from the sex offenders register in order for himself to be allowed to be called as a Mission President.

Phil Bussey consulted with LDS church leaders about Paydan’s sexual misconduct and criminal case in Washington and got advice from them on “how to proceed,” according to the complaint.

Which tells us that at least 1 Apostle is directly involved, and likely the First Presidency and Q12 at the time, were all complicit in this case - they all sign off on Mission President appointments. The First Presidency at the time was Nelson, Oaks, Eyring. The announcement of Phil's call was detailed as being called by the First Presidency. Given the timing of it (around the time the new FP was organised, the previous FP was likely involved in the process of the cover up - so that's Monson, Uchtdorf, and Eyring). And it was probably Kirton McKonkie that were called in to brief Phil on behalf of the Apostles on how to go about clearing his brother's record.

Having done that (presumably as he was subsequently called as a Mission President) Phil knowingly had his bother, the sex offender, travel at the Church's expense to Madrid where he then abused Phil's own grandchild. And all of this was known to Apostles in real time.

Now their son is suing his own parents, and his uncle, the Church, 100 unidentified individuals (which I assume includes the FP and Q12), and someone called Thayne Lyman.

No Apostle has been excommunicated for their involvement in this.

This is one of the biggest and clearest cases of Sex Abuse cover ups by the Church, First Presidency, and Apostles, that I've heard. It should be NYT or Washington Post headline news. Members need to know they cannot trust Church Leaders to do the right thing when they think no-one is watching.

Court Document
https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/cas ... ints_et_al

The Church has zero tolerance for child abusers? Don't make me laugh.

[Dr. Shades]

Piecing together the clues, it looks like the child PB molested in Spain was [Phil]’s child. If so, I wonder if [Phil] regretted having worked so hard to get PB off the sex offender registry.

That was the conclusion I came to about who the child was. He actively (if unwittingly) facilitated the abuse of his own grandchild. Reading through the notes it seems the abuser was his own brother, the child's great uncle.

I might have to respectfully disagree. From the article drumdude quoted:

FLOODLIT has purchased copies of court documents in a King County, Washington criminal case that was sealed from 2017 to 2024, showing that PB was convicted in 2015 of multiple child molestation charges. At the time of his conviction, PB was 16 years old.

So PB was born in 1999. This would make him 20 years old when he first assaulted the child in Spain. The perpetrator continued the conduct in Utah, which makes me think this child was a dependent who was with the mission president during his mission tenure and was still a dependent when the mission president went to Utah. Therefore, judging by PB's age, I'm thinking this is the son of the mission president and this son assaulted his own sibling.

[Marcus]

The father, Phil, posted this in 2023:

Had a great 25th Birthday celebration with our youngest son Paydan. Can't say enough about how he's blessed our life and continues to shine as our son

I'm guessing the young child Paydan molested in Spain was Phil's grandchild?

[Marcus]

What's additionally horrifying to me, on top of the obvious, is that the LDS church leaders apparently wouldn't let Phil be a Mission President if he had a son who was on a sex offender registry. You would think that would also imply that having a child who was a sex offender would disqualify one for the position of MP, but apparently not.

Apparently, it was only the fact that the son was identified as a sex offender. Getting his record expunged (in TWO states!) meant he could be an unidentified sex offender, which is apparently okay with LDS leaders.

[I Have Questions]

That was the conclusion I came to about who the child was. He actively (if unwittingly) facilitated the abuse of his own grandchild. Reading through the notes it seems the abuser was his own brother, the child's great uncle.

I might have to respectfully disagree. From the article drumdude quoted:

FLOODLIT has purchased copies of court documents in a King County, Washington criminal case that was sealed from 2017 to 2024, showing that PB was convicted in 2015 of multiple child molestation charges. At the time of his conviction, PB was 16 years old.

So PB was born in 1999. This would make him 20 years old when he first assaulted the child in Spain. The perpetrator continued the conduct in Utah, which makes me think this child was a dependent who was with the mission president during his mission tenure and was still a dependent when the mission president went to Utah. Therefore, judging by PB's age, I'm thinking this is the son of the mission president and this son assaulted his own sibling.

Here's the family details:

President and Sister Bussey were sealed in the Manti Temple in July of 1979. They moved to the Northwest the following year and have lived in the Seattle area for nearly 30 years. Before moving to Spain, they lived in Fall City, Washington. They have three children: Brandon, his wife Heidi and two children Audrey & Harvey, who reside in Provo, Utah; Amanda and her husband Chris, and daughter Billie who live in the Bussey home in Fall City, Washington; and Paydan, their youngest, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

https://spainmadridmissionblog.wordpress.com/about-us/

Brandon is the one suing his parents and the Church etc, Paydan is the offender. The victim is likely one of Brandon's children.

[Marcus]

Floodlit reports say the first time PB molested the child was in 2014, when the child was an infant, then in 2019 in Spain, and then also in 2020-2023 back in Utah. The 2014 molestations was apparently one of the charges Phil was trying to cover up.

[pistolero]

I still feel that we are missing some key details in this case. If it was the same child that was abused in 2014 and in 2019 in Spain, and that this victim is the nephew/niece of the perpetrator, then surely you have to ask serious questions of everyone else involved? e.g. The perpetrator's brother and MP Phil. Something is not right there.

Also, I see MP Phil's wife's maiden name is Hafen, any relation to Bruce?

Surely the church will want to settle this one ASAP, and maybe that was the plan for the case all along?

I'm waiting for the RFM podcast breaking this down so I can understand what happened here.