Anti-Abortion Extremist Found Guilty of Molestation

Anti-abortion extremist John Burt was found guilty on Thursday of molesting a young girl. The 15-year-old girl lived at Our Father's House, Burt's so-called home for "unwed mothers," in Santa Rosa County, Florida. Burt was found guilty of four counts of lewd or lascivious molestation and one count of lewd or lascivious conduct. Each charge is a second-degree felony and carries with it up to 15 years in prison, according to the Pensacola News. Burt will be sentenced at a hearing on May 12.

John Burt has a long history of connections to violence against abortion clinics in the Pensacola, FL area. He has been arrested numerous times for his participation disruptive protests and clinic invasions. A 1986 invasion led by Burt was the impetus for the NOW v. Scheidler case. Burt led protests in Pensacola on behalf of two couples that bombed three local clinics on Christmas Day in 1984. Burt was outside the Pensacola clinic when an Our Father's House volunteer, Michael Griffin, murdered Dr. David Gunn in 1993. Griffin's family later claimed that John Burt had manipulated Griffin. Burt is also an associate of Paul Hill, who murdered Dr. Bayard Britton and volunteer escort James Barrett outside another local Pensacola clinic in 1994. Burt is on film helping Paul Hill identify Dr. Britton outside the clinic in the weeks before Hill shot and killed Dr. Britton and his clinic escort.

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Media Resources: Pensacola News 4/2/04; Associated Press 4/2/04; Feminist Majority Foundation

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