Stephen Collins Is In Deep Trouble
Stephen Collins is accused of pedophile charges. Reuters/Phil McCarten

“7th Heaven” star Stephen Collins has reportedly been recorded admitting that he was a child molester. The U.S. actor, who played a pastor and the Camden family’s father in the now-defunct series, revealed to his estranged wife, actress Faye Grant, that he had molested and exposed himself to several underage girls in the past.

Collins, 67, is currently in a prolonged divorce process with Grant. He allegedly revealed to her in 2012 his sordid past during a trip to a therapist.

In the audio obtained by TMZ, Collins can be heard describing how he molested three underage girls. Grant, 57, secretly recorded their session with their therapist. According to the gossip Web site, their therapy session was triggered by a confession that Collins already made to Grant; hence, there are mentions of “disclosure” and “list” in the recording.

One of the girls, a relative of his first wife Marjorie Weinman, was just 11 years old when he first molested her. Weinman, who was married to Collins from 1970 to 1978, first reported the molestation in 2012.

“There was one moment of touching where her hand, I put her hand on my penis,” Collins said in the tape, adding that he had exposed himself to her “a couple of times” after the first incident. Those happened in a span of three years, when the girl was 11, 12 and 13.

There was also a girl in Los Angeles who lived in their neighbourhood, and he had made amends to her after 12 or 15 years. There was a third girl, who was around 12 or 13 at the time. The names of the girls were redacted in the audio.

“When you exposed yourself … did you have an erection?” Grank asked him, to which he responded, “No, I mean, no. Partial, maybe I think.”

A source from the New York Police Department told TMZ that they are currently conducting a criminal investigation on Collins for inappropriate sexual contact with minors.

Collins played Reverend Eric Camden in “7th Heaven,” a family drama that aired from 1996 to 2007. In the show, he was a pastor of their Protestant church in a fictional neighbourhood of Glen Oak Community, and he was also the father of seven children, one of which was played by Jessica Biel.

More recently, he was in the shows “The Fosters,” “Devious Maids” and “Revolution.”