It started with casual hugs, whispers of affection in the teenage boy's ear.

Eventually, a relationship between the 15-year-old and a 49-year-old Santa Clarita man resulted in 10 felony charges filed last week after the man was accused of sexually molesting the teen.

Caroline Mason said she and her family met William Greggory Babb at North Oaks Church of Christ in Canyon County about three years ago when her son, a local high school student, was 13.

"In a church environment, you give someone the benefit of the doubt," the mother of two said earlier this week. "Everyone thought he was a weird guy, but we felt sorry for him and his mother. I was friends with his mother for three years and didn't have any reason to distrust him."

Babb is being held in lieu of $750,000 at North County Correctional Facility in Castaic on suspicion of lewd acts on a minor, attempted lewd acts on a minor, meeting a minor for lewd purposes, contact with a minor for sexual offenses and sending harmful matter over the Internet, authorities said. He is expected to appear in court on March 12.

Babb could not be reached for comment.

Mason said there were several incidents where Babb would hug her son and tell him that he loved him and not to tell his parents.
"We thought he was a nice guy from church," she said.

Mason said she thinks Babb found her son's e-mail address in the church directory. She also said Babb and his mother wanted to involve themselves in the Masons' lives, even sharing birthdays and holidays.

"He asked me all the time to take my son to different places. It seemed he wanted to play big brother," the mother said. "Gregg would take him to Starbucks."

At one point, Mason said, Babb acted inappropriately, so she and her husband confronted him and told him to stay away from their children and not come near their family any more.

"At that point (Babb's) mother and Gregg said he was getting therapy for a ‘problem' and that he had strange and unusual feelings and dreams about my son," Mason said. "I don't know if he was getting therapy or not, but apparently it wasn't working."

The e-mails from Babb began again even after the couple confronted him, she said.

Mason said she doesn't know what attracted Babb to her son.

"Gregg knows my son has a girlfriend. My son is a good student, an athlete," she added.

Mason said her son hasn't used the Internet since they first went to law officials four months ago.

"My son is very distrusting now. He's angry and hurt," she said. "My whole family has been devastated, because we trusted these people. My 9-year-old daughter was around him and his mother. My son is very distraught that someone would behave that way."

Mason took the matter to the church elders and showed them the e-mails Babb allegedly sent to her son.

Joe Harrington, one of the four elders at North Oak Church of Christ where about 200 people attend, said they immediately took action and reported what they knew to authorities.

"Churches have to be very vigilant, and we were very vigilant about what we saw and when we saw things we were uncomfortable with we confronted Gregg and had a conference with him. He denied that he had any involvement with our young people," Harrington said on Wednesday. "But, we already knew what he said wasn't true. We were morally and legally bound to take it to the police."

Harrington said Babb was a church member and could have walked into any church.

He said background checks are performed on all church employees, such as elders, preachers and teachers who come into contact with young church members.

"We had everything in place to deal with this situation," Harrington said. "We would have been totally irresponsible if we didn't."

Mason said all parents should be careful of every person in their children's lives and warned others not to be so trusting just because they are in a church setting. She added, however, the church has been helpful and understanding when the alleged problem came to light.

"This has been really scary and shocking and made us hyper-vigilant about who our children are around," Mason said. "Watch your kids at all times; watch who they are associated with. The big thing is that the mother and I were friends, and I think we got snowed."