Latest news with #RyanCarey
The Guardian
7 days ago
- The Guardian
Sunday school teacher jailed for sexually abusing nine children protected by church leader, Victorian cult inquiry hears
A Sunday school teacher who was jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by the leader of his fundamentalist church, after parents reported the abuse to him instead of police, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has heard. Catherine and Ryan Carey, former members of the Geelong Revival Centre (GRC), gave evidence at the first hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into the practices of cults and organised fringe groups on Wednesday. The inquiry was established in April, after allegations of coercive practices at the GRC, as detailed in LiSTNR's investigative podcast series Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder. The church has not publicly commented on the allegations contained in the podcast. Led by the legislative assembly's legal and social issues committee, it is not examining specific religious groups or their beliefs but the methods they use to attract and retain members – and whether those practices amount to coercion that should be criminalised. Ryan told the inquiry the man had a valid working with children check at the time of the offending and described the government's screening process as a 'Band-Aid on an amputee.' Sign up: AU Breaking News email 'He was convicted last year of molesting nine kids in the Geelong community and the parents that found out reported it to the cult leader – and this was in the judgment – instead of going police,' he said. 'There was a two-and-a-half day lag where this guy was able to destroy evidence – I think was 12 terabytes of child pornography – because the parents didn't do the right thing and go report this [to] police.' Catherine said during this time a child was also left in the care of the man. She said GRC's leader only contacted police after learning the man had already turned himself in. Ryan said the abuse went unreported because the GRC acted like a 'state within a state' and believed its authority was 'higher than the law of the land.' He said when sexual abuse occurred within families, it was also 'covered up' by the GRC and victims 'blamed' by their offenders. 'The girls were always seen as the flirts and the ones that were leading the men astray, like it was never the male's fault, which is, it's just horrible,' Ryan said. He told the inquiry the environment within the GRC was 'unsafe for kids', saying it was common for young people to be left alone with elders. Elders, meanwhile, were regularly instructed to physically punish children – especially those with single mothers. 'If you were in Sunday school or child minding, you could hit kids,' Ryan said. 'It was absolutely disastrous. I speak to adults now that are still traumatised.' Families were also instructed to discipline their children harshly. Ryan told the inquiry he was told to 'crush my kids' will by the time there are three to make them compliant' while Catherine said comparisons were made to 'breaking in a horse'. The couple have since left the GRC and founded the group Stop Religious Coercion Australia. They maintain the centre is a cult, as it uses 'friends, family and fear' to control its members and isolate those who leave. Ryan said his father was 'second in charge of the cult' in Geelong and, from the moment he was born, he 'answered to the cult and the cult leader', living in a 'constant state of fear' that the 'world was going to end'. Catherine, meanwhile, joined at age 19, during a period when she had experienced trauma and felt isolated and vulnerable, or 'ripe to be sucked into a cult', as she put it. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The GRC has been active since the late 1950s and has a network of more than 20 assemblies across Australia and overseas. At its peak, the couple said the GRC had more than 650 members, though the number has since fallen to about 200. Each working member was expected to donate at least 10% of their salary to the GRC, described as a 'free will offering'. 'It's not really free will. It's 10% or your risking hell,' Ryan said. He said some members were discouraged from seeking medical treatment, for everything from broken bones to cancer, as it was believed illness could be healed by prayer. 'I had a close friend that he was so indoctrinated he believed that God would heal him in his cancer and he passed away,' Ryan said. The couple also allege some who have left GRC have gone on to commit suicide or died of a result of alcohol and drug abuse. 'I know of suicides in even teenage years, where kids stuck in that situation have suicided,' Ryan said. 'It feels like a hopeless situation.' Catherine added: 'Not to mention ones who … because of addiction and things like that died as a result of that, from their trauma.' In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. Other international helplines can be found at
USA Today
11-04-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Masters winners get a green jacket but did you know Augusta National still owns them?
Masters winners get a green jacket but did you know Augusta National still owns them? How many people worldwide own one of the famed green jackets awarded annually to Masters Tournament champions? It's a trick question. Every single jacket is owned by the Augusta National Golf Club, a federal court has upheld. Now, Ryan Carey won't even consider bringing a green jacket into the lucrative sports collectibles market. "Augusta National's position is that they own the green jackets and then they give out, basically, possessory rights to the champions," said Carey, founder and co-owner of the golf-collectibles auction house Golden Age. "So while we have sold green jackets in the past, we honor Augusta's opinion or stance on that, that they're really owned by them." A rye-green, tropical-weight wool blazer with custom-pressed brass buttons has been awarded officially to each Masters champion since Sam Snead in 1949. But the club also gave jackets to the nine previous Masters champions. In 2013, the green jacket owned by Horton Smith, the first Masters champion in 1934 and again in 1936, sold at auction for almost $700,000, believed to be a record for golf memorabilia. In 1994, a 1950s-era green jacket with its member's nametag snipped out surfaced at a Toronto thrift store, and was sold in 2017 for almost $140,000. Many golf fans consider the green jackets an enduring symbol of the Masters' style and substance, which has made the distinctive blazers a target for eager collectors. But some appear too eager. In March, a former warehouse worker at the Augusta National was sentenced to a year in jail for his role in handling millions of dollars' worth of the club's Masters memorabilia, including Arnold Palmer's first green jacket that he won in 1958. Fiercely protective of its branded image, the National has gone to court to protect the jackets. In 2017, the Augusta National legally challenged Golden Age's predecessor, Green Jacket Auctions, which handled some of the last green jackets ever to come to market. A federal judge closed the lawsuit in 2019 after an administrative panel agreed with the National's contention that the "green jacket" name, which it trademarked in 2010, belongs to the club in addition to the jackets. But even without the jackets, the golf-collectibles market has stayed solid, according to Carey, saying that collecting "alternative assets" from sports in general seemed to have risen with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic as people sought solace in their possessions while sheltering in place. More golf-memorabilia collectors are pivoting toward other big-ticket items, such as winners' Masters trophies, which depict the National's famous clubhouse. The permanent Masters Trophy stays at the club. Carey helped sell one of Palmer's four Masters trophies at auction in 2016 for more than $444,000. The trophy was promised to a golf museum at a Virginia resort that never was built. Now in the hands of a private collector, the trophy could "easily" fetch more than $1 million if auctioned, he said. "I keep begging the owner to let me sell it again, and as of right now he keeps saying no. He enjoys having it in his collection," Carey said. "That's probably the one I'd like to get back the most."
New York Times
10-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The most expensive Masters memorabilia: Trophies, tickets and all things Tiger
The Masters has a unique pull that entrances both casual and devoted viewers alike every year in early April. Even people who wouldn't give golf a second thought any other week of the year often take an interest in some aspect of the tournament or its outcome. It's an event that transcends golf, which means it also attracts a wide variety of collectors. Advertisement 'It's probably the only sport, or at least the most significant sport, where a tournament is collected and everything surrounding the tournament,' said Ryan Carey, president and founder of golf-centric Golden Age Auctions. 'Meaning, other sports are more about the individual players winning an event or a championship. But the Masters has its own collectors. There is this whole segment of people that just collect The Masters. It's their favorite week of the year. It's their favorite thing to collect. … 'The Masters drives everything.' Which is why the most expensive items ever sold for marketplaces like Golden Age or Golf Auction carry connections to The Masters. For example, the set of irons Tiger Woods used during the 2001 Masters where he completed the famed 'Tiger Slam,' in which he became the reigning champion for golf's four major tournaments — The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship — sold for nearly $5.2 million on Golden Age in 2022. Tiger Woods, 8 iron, 2001. Put it in the Louvre — Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBid) March 24, 2022 Then there's the inaugural 1934 Masters entrance badge signed by Bobby Jones, Horton Smith and others that sold for more than $470,000 on Golf Auction. It became the second highest price for any sporting ticket in an auction, only topped by a ticket for Jackie Robinson's debut game, according to the auction house. This is the 1st time anyone is seeing this photo. All 3 known series badges to the 1934 Masters Tournament together in one photo #themasters — Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBid) April 4, 2018 The Augusta National design plans for Amen Corner hole No. 12 signed by golf course architect Alister MacKenzie sold for $272,073.90, via Golf Auction. Even a Masters gnome, arguably the tournament's hottest annual collectible, has sold for more than $10,000 on eBay. Let's take a look at some of the more notable Masters items that've been purchased publicly. (But first, there's the Masters green jacket elephant in the room. Some have been sold through auctions, with Smith's jacket from his 1934 and 1936 Masters wins selling for more than $680,000 in 2013. But because Augusta National claims ownership of all green jackets, finding any for sale has been almost impossible for nearly the past decade. I'll examine this issue later this week.) Advertisement Trophies Mementos that a Masters champion personally owns from his victory stand as some of the most expensive pieces of golf memorabilia to exist. And there are more trophies that have been circulated through auction houses than you might imagine. In addition to the green jacket, Masters winners also get a gold medallion depicting Augusta National's clubhouse, their names engraved on the 130-pound permanent trophy that's shaped like the clubhouse and resides inside it, and a smaller Sterling silver replica of the clubhouse trophy that they can keep. The Masters began awarding clubhouse trophies to winners starting in 1993, but trophies were later retroactively produced for past champions. 'Clubhouse' trophies from legends like Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player have been auctioned and sold well into six figures. Some of Snead's trophies have exchanged hands multiple times within the past 15 years. Snead's 1949 trophy sold for $143,400 through Heritage Auctions in 2013. The trophy hit the block again in 2023 selling for $766,433 through Golden Age. His 1954 trophy sold on Heritage for $191,200 in 2013, but resold for $333,601 on Golden Age in 2018. Player's trophy for his 1974 win sold for $523,483 in 2021, while a Palmer trophy not representing a specific year sold for $444,012 in 2016. With nearly 2 weeks left in the auction, a bidding war erupted today over Sam Snead's 1954 Masters Trophy. Now at $278,001 — Golden Age (@GoldenAgeBid) March 27, 2018 Snead's Masters market doesn't stop with trophies, though. His 1952 Masters gold medal sold for $190,372.80 on Golden Age. Tiger Woods Surprising to probably no one, there's mass appeal for anything involving Woods and The Masters. Woods' autographed red Nike polo worn during the final round of the 2010 Masters, where Woods finished tied for fourth, sold for $139,348.80 in 2022. It's the second most expensive piece of clothing memorabilia purchased through Golden Age, only beaten by Smith's green jacket. A golf ball used in his final round from the 1997 Masters sold for $64,124, while the ball used to sink Woods' tournament winning putt in 2005 fetched $30,326. A 2019 Masters flag from Amen Corner hole No. 12 signed by Woods sold for $43,797.60. A set of five autographed Masters badges (1997, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2019) went for $36,197. Advertisement Putters, balls, locket, and more There are too many interesting Masters items that have commanded a hefty price tag to count. So here's a list via Golden Age Auctions and Golf Auction of notable pieces sold through the years: The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.
