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Oct. 16 (UPI) -- The head of a U.S.-based charity that aims to help young girls in Liberia has stepped aside temporarily amid a rape investigation. Katie Meyler founded the More Than Me Academy in Bernardsville, N.J., in 2009, a free private school that aims to get girls from impoverished areas of Liberia's West Point and Central Monrovia areas off the streets. The academy has 170 girls between the ages of 5 and 17 enrolled each year between kindergarten and sixth grade.
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Court documents include testimony that says girls were raped at the academy by co-founder Macintosh Johnson, who had a sexual relationship with Meyler, FrontPage Africa reported.
Witnesses said in the testimony that Johnson raped girls as young as 10 years old.
The accusations were detailed in a report by Time magazine and ProPublica.
Meyler said the number of girls assaulted could have been "everyone over the age of 11," or nearly a quarter of girls in the school. The academy's Liberia Advisory Board asked Meyler to step aside from her post as CEO pending the outcome of the investigation.
"Katie Meyler has sacrificed a lot to support education for vulnerable children, however, given the sensitive nature of this situation the Liberian Board has asked [her] ... to temporarily step aside," the board wrote in a letter Sunday.
The academy said the rapes were immediately reported to police and Johnson was arrested within four days, and that it cooperated with the government to "ensure a speedy trial." MTM said the trial resulted in a hung jury and a second trial was set until Johnson's death in 2016. Medical examinations were conducted for 10 girls and one of the girls tested HIV positive and is in treatment, the group said.
"To all the girls who were raped by Macintosh Johnson in 2014 and before: we failed you," a letter to the community last week said. "We gave Johnson power that he exploited to abuse children. Those power dynamics broke staff ability to report the abuse to our leadership immediately. Our leadership should have recognized the signs earlier and we have and will continue to employ training and awareness programs so we do not miss this again."
At the same time the accusations were reported, the community was dealing with an Ebola outbreak, which the ProPublica article said led to school staff transporting 262 suspected patients to get treatment and visiting thousands of homes to check on residents' welfare.
MTM said the ProPublica coverage provided a "one-sided view of our overall work and achievements."
The Liberian Advisory Board cited "inconsistent" and new information as its reasons for ordering an inquiry.
"I support the Advisory Board's decision and will cooperate fully with the investigative firm," Meyler wrote in a letter to the board. "I believe stepping aside while the investigation is underway will further the goal of a thorough and impartial review."
