Express & Star [United Kingdom]
May 25, 2007
http://www.expressandstar.co.uk/2007/05/25/pervert-sent-to-jail/
A former Walsall baptist minister was today jailed for three-and-a-half years for a string of sex attacks on young girls.
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Judge William Kennedy told Nigel Westley he had breached the "sacred trust" he held. He said: "In each case a child that came to you knowing and trusting you as a baptist minister was indecently touched by you.
"The consequences of such a breach of trust are often incalculable.
"Not even a language as strong as ours can describe the enormity of your offences."
Westley, who used to live in Pleck Road, Walsall, had pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13, two counts of sexual activity with a child and possessing 108 indecent photographs of children.
Snaresbrook Crown Court heard the 44-year-old was a minister at Harvest Rock Community Church – a church he established in Newham, East London – when he was arrested and charged.
Mr Christopher Amor, prosecuting, told the court Westley had been raped as a boy.
Just over 10 years ago, owing to an extra-marital affair, he had his accreditation as a minister temporarily removed.
He divorced and subsequently re-married and fathered two children.
Afterwards, he and his family moved from Walsall to London so he could take up the post of youth minister in the Newham area.
Westley then started holding church meetings at his flat while working part-time as he sought accreditation to become a church minister again.
Mr Amor said: "On separate occasions, girls aged between nine and 14 were indecently assaulted.
"There was an engineering of the situation so he found himself alone with children."
Westley was put on the sex offenders register for life and banned from working with children even on a voluntary basis for 10 years.
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