7th Heaven dad Stephen Collins ‘abuse confession’

THE actor who played the minister father on TV show 7th Heaven has reportedly been caught on tape confessing to molesting an underage girl and exposing himself to two others.

TMZ has published audio of what appears to be actor Stephen Collins confessing during a therapy session with his estranged wife that he abused the girls, and giving graphic details.

Collins made the confession to his wife Faye Grant.

The pair are in the middle of divorcing, and Collins was unaware she was secretly recording the therapy session, reports TMZ.

Under Califoia law, it is legal to secretly record people to gather evidence of a felony.

Collins allegedly first admitted the alleged offences to his wife in 2012, although the alleged incidents date back years.

In the tape, he mentions a “disclosure” and a “list”, which appears to reference the a confession he previously made to his wife — which triggered the emergency therapy session.

Family drama ... The cast of squeaky-clean TV show 7th Heaven, which ran from 1996 to 2007. Source: News Corp Australia

On the tape, Collins confesses to abusing an 11-year-old girl who is a relative of his first wife, and admits exposing himself to her when she was 11, 12 and 13 years old.

He also mentions a girl who lived in their neighbourhood in Los Angeles, but says he tried to apologise to her years later. He then mentions a third girl, who was aged around 12 or 13 at the time of alleged abuse. Two of the girls were from New York.

TMZ reports that NYPD has the tape and last week flew two detectives to Los Angeles to interview grant.

A police official reportedly told the gossip site that there is an active investigation into “inappropriate sexual contact with minors”, at least three victims.

Collins played Reverand Eric Camden on the squeaky-clean family drama 7th Heaven, which ran between 1996 and 2007.

Last month, he tweeted a reunion photo of himself with his former cast members, including Jessica Biel.

Collins has often worked with minors, including the cast of 7th Heaven and recent family drama The Fosters. He has also recently had parts in Revolution and Devious Maids.