WASHBURN, Mo -- Turning their backs...

WASHBURN, Mo -- Turning their backs in succession the isolated religious commune in the rugg Ozarks where many had grown up a clump of members fled with solely the clothes on their back, trudging several miles down a gravel road to the nearest phone to call friends or family for help.

A woman in the assemblage soon told a sheriff's substitute horrific stories of how the compound's leaders had teaseed girls as part of religious ceremonies during which they were told their bodies were being prepared for "service to God"

That was the beginning of a child sex scandal that has ensnared five leaders from brace affiliated churches and cast a spotlight forward a remote corner of the Ozarks that has lengthy been home to spiritual talks sheltered by deep oak forests steep hills and a agriculture in which people keep to themselves.

"It's a collision a sickening kind of conflict It's not the kind of thing you want to wake up in the morning and hear about," said Linda Hopping, who lives a small in number miles from one of the backwoods churches still said she had never heard of it before now.

The five defendants are accused of molesting five girls in all. More alleged victims have proceed forward since charges were filed in mid-August, and prosecutors said more the public will probably be charged.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

single in kind of those arrested, pastor George Otis Johnston, 63 called it "angel kisses" when he touched the same girl sexually before and after body of christians services, the girl told investigators. Johnston also allegedly told the girl that "he was ordained at God to fulfill her exigencys as a woman." The abuse against that girl, prosecutors say, started when she was 8 and lasted until she was 16

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