BREAKING NEWS FROM FLOODLIT.org:
A Floodlit investigation has revealed that after a stake president in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS/Mormon church) was accused in a lawsuit of covering up child sexual abuse, the church then promoted him to be a seventy and temple president. The church settled the lawsuit in 2015.
Floodlit also learned that the convicted abuser discussed in the lawsuit later offered advice for entrepreneurs on a church-owned university’s YouTube channel, and attended temple services as an unregistered sex offender.
Since our launch in 2022, Floodlit has listed the convicted abuser as a “John Doe” because the lawsuit’s complaint referred to him only as “the pedophile.” Today, after long research, we have identified him as Jared Wilson and added significant details and a photo from his previous sex offender registration to his case report.
The Temple
The Raleigh North Carolina Temple of the church was rededicated in 2019, after 20 years of operation.
Elder Matthew S. Harding, an area seventy in the church’s leadership, said, “The open house was a chance of a lifetime.” He’d been assigned by the church’s First Presidency to coordinate the temple’s open house and dedication.
Harding was president of the Raleigh Stake from 2008 to 2018, when the church assigned him to the area seventy position.
In 2023, the church made Harding the Raleigh Temple president. As of January 2026, Harding remains in that position.
“The Pedophile”
In a lawsuit filed in June 2013 against the Mormon church in the Wake County Superior Court, plaintiff Jane Doe (the alleged victims’ mother) alleged that Jared Wilson, referred to in the complaint as “the pedophile,” “reported himself in 2008 or 2009 to Bishop Cope […] [who] informed others within the Raleigh Stake about the pedophile’s activities.” She said she had “cause to believe that the pedophile sexually battered three of her […] children.”
In 2010, Wilson, a Mormon church member in Raleigh, was charged with several crimes related to child sexual abuse. Wilson was convicted in 2011 of six total counts of indecent liberties with a child.
Wilson was released from prison in June 2015, according to his North Carolina sex offender registry listing in May 2025 (archived by Floodlit).
Wilson was successful in his effort to be removed from the North Carolina sex offender registry in 2025, with the help of Paul Dubbeling, an attorney noted for his criticism of sex offense registries. Wilson had been registered for 10 years.
In April 2025, the Brigham Young University (BYU) Technology Transfer office published an interview with Wilson on its YouTube channel, where he offered business advice for startup entrepreneurs. BYU is owned and operated by the Mormon church.
In October, Wilson reported on his personal blog that he had recently attended an endowment session in the Raleigh North Carolina LDS temple, and that he was married in an LDS temple in Utah in 2022.
As of January 2026, Wilson lives in Utah. He is not a registered sex offender.
The Lawsuit
During the lawsuit, the church said “the first time Jared confessed to any Defendant that he had engaged in sexual misconduct was in June 2010 when he confessed to Bishop Cope, in the presence of [a family member] and another Church member, that he had inappropriately touched two girls in 2007.” (p. 9, plaintiff’s memorandum in support of her motion to compel discovery.)
However, the plaintiff insisted that “Defendants learned that Wilson was sexually interested in children and acting on that interest before this 2010 exchange,” adding that Wilson had told a court “that he had been confessing ‘at least two years’ before he turned himself in [in 2010].” (footnote 1, p. 9, Ibid.)
The lawsuit said Wilson held church positions that included “Ward Sunday school teacher for children ages 3-12, Ward Sunday School President, Ward Music Chairman, and Ward Missionary.”
According to the complaint, “for a period of years before Plaintiff (mother of victim) discovered that the pedophile had battered her children, the Defendants were aware that the pedophile had sexually battered one or more other children within the Raleigh Stake.”
Wilson’s stake president, Matthew Harding, went on to become an area authority seventy (2009) and president of the Raleigh North Carolina Temple (2023).
Harding was a named defendant in the lawsuit, along with bishop Ken Carlile and bishop Bryan Cope, both of whom were bishops of the Raleigh 4th Ward during times relevant to the suit.
Harding was an attorney who graduated from the BYU Law School. According to an official bio on the church’s website, Harding “previously worked as assistant general counsel for Bayer CropScience LP and as counsel for the Dow Chemical Company.”
”Forgive and forget”
Carlile, Cope and Harding were accused in the lawsuit of failing to report the perpetrator to civil authorities, despite alleged communication with church representatives in Salt Lake City, Utah on the church’s telephone hotline or help line for ecclesiastical leaders dealing with allegations of abuse.
Instead of reporting Wilson to police or prosecutors, church officials arranged for Wilson to be accompanied by a priesthood holder while walking the halls at church.
The plaintiff accused Harding of telling her to “forgive and forget” the sexual abuse of her children:
“After the Plaintiff’s children were abused, Stake President Harding acknowledged the extreme pain inflicted on Plaintiff and her children and apologized to the Plaintiff for not doing enough to protect her children, but told her to ‘forgive and forget.’ He told her that his ‘only hope of [the pain going away] is to encourage you to move forward or press forward in Christ and to avoid dwelling in the past.’”
The suit said, “In August 2011, Stake President Harding, concerned that the Plaintiff might insist on accountability among Defendants, met with the Plaintiff and threatened her by saying that he would report her for abusing her children so as to try to prevent her from making the Defendants accountable for the pedophile’s sexual battery of her child.”
It also alleged that, “In making that threat to the Plaintiff, Defendant Harding stated he had a ‘legal obligation to report child abuse,’ even though at no time did Harding report the pedophile’s known sexual abuse of multiple children.”
The lawsuit settled in September 2015, according to online docket information.
Floodlit is seeking copies of court documents in this case (Wake County, North Carolina civil case 13-CVS-008873-910).
Floodlit.org: Shining a Light
Floodlit is seeking information regarding any church disciplinary actions taken against Wilson related to his 2011 conviction for crimes related to child sex abuse.
Have any info on this or other Mormon sex abuse cases? Contact us.
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