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An alleged victim of 7th Heaven dad Stephen Collins tells her story.

Trigger warning: This post deals with child sexual abuse and may be triggering for some readers.

He was the doting dad and minister on 7th Heaven, and he’s recently admitted to molesting three underage girls between 1973-1994.  April Price is the first of his alleged victims to publicly testify against him.

April Price was only 13 when she met 7th Heaven actor Stephen Collins. She was on summer holidays in LA in 1983. On that trip, the then 35-year-old actor allegedly exposed himself to Price three times.

Related content: Stephen Collins admits, “I did something terribly wrong.”

Collins has recently come under investigation for three counts of child molestation after his estranged wife tapped a conversation during which the star admitted to the acts. One of those mentioned on the tape was April Price.

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Stephen Collins. Image via Getty.
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As the first alleged victim to publicly tell her story, Price has waived her anonymity in an interview with the Daily Mail because, she said, “I’m standing up for myself.”

The now-44-year-old said she met the actor when he was a neighbour of her TV producer aunt, with whom she was staying for the summer holidays. At the time, Collins was starring on the TV show The tales of the Gold Monkey, which Price never missed. She said she knocked on his door one day to get his autograph.

“He was kind and said, “I don’t have a photograph here, but I will get one and get it to you,” Price told the Daily Mail.

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Stephen Collins and his ex-wife Faye Grant. Image via Getty.
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Not long after meeting Collins, Price was standing in her aunt’s kitchen when the actor allegedly walked naked through the courtyard in front of a nearby bay window.

“At the time, I didn’t think it was necessarily sinister really, but I thought it was odd. It was not like he tried to cover up. He knew I was there while he was naked. He could see me there.”

She shrugged the incident off.

Read more:7th Heaven Dad allegedly confesses on tape to abusing young girls.

But when the second incident occurred, she started to feel a little more uncomfortable.

Price couldn’t figure out how to hook her Atari video game console up to her aunt’s TV, so the actor offered his help. He came into the living room and had a go at fixing it.

“I don’t know at what point he did it, but when he turned around, his pants were completely unfastened. His penis was hanging out and I’m just shocked. He doesn’t make any mention of it. He doesn’t act any differently,” Price alleged, according to the Daily Mail.

At just 13, Price said she hadn’t even kissed a boy yet and was unsure of what to do.

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“I kept my gaze at eye level. I didn’t want to be rude. He was doing something for me. He was fixing something for me. I didn’t want him to think i wasn’t appreciative of that. He’d fixed my Atari and went home.”

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Stephen Collins with ‘7th Heaven’ cast. Image via Getty.

But it was the third and final time Collins allegedly exposed himself to Price, that she really knew something was not right about his behaviour.

When she was tanning in the complex courtyard, Collins came up to Price and engaged in conversation with her.

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“He would always come up to me, very complimentary, nice and engaging. He was one of the people who would grab your eyes and look at you and actually talk to you”, she said.

“We are having a conversation and he made mention of some memorabilia from the show Tales of the Gold Monkey that he had in his apartment… he asked me if I’d like to come over and look at all the stuff that he had.

“And I did.”

Read more: Stephen Collins admits ”I did something terribly wrong”.

When Price was inside the actors apartment, she said he asked if it was okay for him to get more comfortable. He allegedly returned from his room completely naked.

“My heart fell. This was terrifying,” she explains to the Daily Mail.

“[I thought] ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. What am I going to do?’ It was really sad because at 13, we’re taught to be respectful. We’re taught to be honest and kind. I don’t want to appear rude. I don’t want to say, ‘Oh my god, get your clothes on.'”

“And he is nonchalantly fixing some light or fixture that is three feet away from me. It was a standing light and I think he was changing the bulb. But he puts his genitalia right at my eye level.”

While Price was searching for a way out of the situation, she saw her aunt walk by the window. She had come home early from work.

“It was like, ‘There’s my out. Gotta go. Bye.”

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Stephen Collins spoke to US ABC’s Katie Couric last year in relation to allegations. Image via YouTube.
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The actor didn’t have a chance to say anything to her. Ms Price said she felt dirty so jumped straight into the shower that’s when she heard Collins, who was now fully-clothed, come and speak to her aunt.

“He came out to confront my aunt and told her, ‘Oh yeah, she was in my apartment. Everything’s fine.'”

Collins didn’t approach Price for the rest of the holidays and it wasn’t until several years later on the set of a commercial with the 7th Heaven cast that she saw him again.

She was serving food for cast and crew.

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A cast photo from 7th Heaven, in which Stephen Collins played a doting father.

 

“He came up to the other side of the crafts service table. He was very intense. He said, ‘I want you to understand what I did. I know it was extremely wrong. I really apologise for it, if I ever made you uncomfortable’,” Ms Price said.

Read more: More shocking news for the 7th Heaven cast.

She said what happened during that summer certainly affected her through her teens.

“Those early feelings of helplessness made me not want to be touched for years after. I didn’t want to be approached for the longest time.”

Since the airing of Collins’ taped confession and his subsequent media interviews relating to charges, April Price said she’s had to relive a part of her life she wanted to leave behind.

“You know, I wish he was a plumber. Then he wouldn’t have gone back on TV to talk about me. been on TV and I’m being victimized all over again.”

Listen to the actor’s taped confession here…

Daily Mail reports that law enforcement in New York and Los Angeles said they were investigating the claims when Collins’ confession tapes first surfaced.

But TMZ reports law enforcement later said that despite the taped confession, they felt Collins would not be charged and that “the cases will go nowhere”.

If you know or suspect a child is being sexually assaulted, please call the Police on 000, the Department of Child Services in your state or territory or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831.