Founder of Ethiopian orphanage charged

UPI | March 25, 2010

SALT LAKE CITY, March 24 (UPI) — The co-founder of a Utah center to aid and adopt Ethiopian children has been charged with multiple counts of sex abuse and child pornography, authorities said.

Lon Harvey Kennard, Sr., 68, of Heber, Utah, is charged with sexually abusing two of his adopted daughters who are now adults, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Wednesday.

He also faces 24 counts of first-degree aggravated sex abuse of a child, 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and a charge of witness tampering, the newspaper said.

Kennard and his wife, DeAnna, adopted six Ethiopian children in the early 1990s. The couple also has six biological children. All are now adults.

Court documents allege the sexual abuse occurred from 1995 to 2002.

The Kennards, with a partner, established the Village of Hope orphanage in Kersa Illala, 200 miles south of the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, in 1994.