BishopAccountability.org
	Paedophile Baptist Minister Locked up Life Style Extra [United Kingdom] May 25, 2007 http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=EZ2537908V&news_headline=paedophile_baptist_minister_locked_up A Baptist Minister who sexually abused girls in his care as young as nine was jailed today. Serial paedophile Nigel Westley, 44, sexually abused girls over a four year period by luring them into his clutches through his work with the church. Shamed father-of-three Westley would offer the girls lifts home in his car and invite them to his home for 'sleepovers' or to do the decorating. Once alone he would touch the girls, aged between nine and 14, on their genitals and bottom. It was only when married Westley began an affair with a troubled 17-year-old church member that the abuse came to light. Westley, originally from Walsall in the West Midlands, had his accreditation with the Baptist church removed 10 years ago when he had the first of his extra-marital affairs in his home town. He divorced his wife, had a child with his mistress, and then remarried his wife after a 'service of deliverance' held at a McDonald's restaurant. He then moved to London in 1999 in an attempt to regain accreditation with the church. Today at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Christopher Amor, prosecuting, said: "He began holding church meetings at his flat. It was an open house and children were coming and going to the flat. "The charges reflect the fact that on separate occasions girls aged between nine and 14 were indecently assaulted. There would usually be an engineering of a situation so that he found himself alone with the children. "The touching was deliberately calculating and sometimes suggestive remarks would be made while it was done." Congregation members of the Harvest Rock Community Church in Bignold Road, Forest Gate, east London, were alerted to Westley's abuse after the 17-year-old girl confided in them. After being confronted by church members, Westley went to an east London police station where he said he wanted to 'confess all', but only admitted abusing two of his victims. In sentencing Westley to three-and-a-half years in jail, Judge William Kennedy warned him: "Each of the victim's statements showed clearly the effect of breach of the sacred trust that exists in each child's mind in you and all that you represent. "The consequences of breach of such a trust are often incalculable, they can shake the very foundation of a religious belief and destroy all the comfort that such a belief can bring. "Even a language as rich as ours struggles to convey the enormity of your breach." Outside court the mother of one of the young victims, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "Considering the seriousness of what he has done, I don't think he was remorseful. "I would have preferred it to have been a longer sentence. Unfortunately he has only got that time, but we will be living with it for the rest of our lives. "It broke up our own family, and the people that we knew at that church we no longer see. I hope he has a particularly hard time in prison. He was a manipulative man, and as far as I was concerned he was there as a minister simply because he would have access to children." Detective Constable Harry Walsh-Jones, who led the investigation, said he believed there could be many more victims who have not come forward. He said: "I would encourage any other victims to come forward. "He said he was hounded by demons within him which led him to abuse children. I only wish that as a minister he had sought help for these demons before subjecting these children to these horrific offences." Westley, who had worked extensively as a youth minister in the Walsall and Wolverhampton areas, admitted 10 counts of indecent assault on a child, sexual assault and sexual activity on children under 13, and possessing indecent images. Bespectacled Westley, of Pleck Road, Walsall, who has cropped hair and a goatee beard, bowed his head as he was sentenced to jail
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.