Actor Stephen Collins, best known for having portrayed dad/Rev. Eric Camden on 7th Heaven, confessed to having molested young girls as revealed in a bombshell audio recording obtained and posted via TMZ.
The 67-year-old, who has been in a long and contested divorce with his estranged actress/wife Faye Grant, made the statements during a 2012 meeting with Grant and a therapist. Collins not only admitted to molesting and/or exposing himself to several underage girls years before – he got specific.
Collins was unaware that he was being recorded but Grant did so because her lawyer had informed her that in California, where the therapy session took place, there’s a law that allows you to secretly record someone if it is in an effort to gather evidence that the other person had committed a felony.
In the audio Collins often mentions a “list” which refers to a confession he had already made to his wife – which was the trigger for the session that was taped.
In the recording Collins says that he molested an 11-year-old girl who was a relative of his first wife. He can be heard saying, “There was one moment of touching where her hand, I put her hand on my penis.” When Grant asks him if he had an erection during the encounter he answers, “No, I mean, no. Partial, maybe I think.”
Collins goes on to mention other girls including one who was from his neighborhood in Los Angeles and another girl said to be between the ages of 12-13 from New York.
TMZ goes on to report that the NYPD is in possession of the same audio and that there is a current investigation. Sources stated that there are “at least 3 victims” and the nature of the investigation is “inappropriate sexual contact with minors.”
