By Kim Nguyen
Denver Channel
August 15, 2011
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28872129/detail.html
A former volunteer youth pastor has been sentenced for sexually abusing teenage members at his church.
William "Bill" Thomas McLaughlin, 47, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust in June.
On Friday, he was sentenced to six years to life, followed by 10 years to life of parole.
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| William "Bill" McLaughlin's booking photo. |
McLaughlin was arrested in June 2009, accused of sexually assaulting one teenage member of the Denver Church of Christ. Over the next year, three additional victims came forward, prosecutors said.
All of the victims were teenagers at the time of the abuse and two of the four were sexually abused more than 10 years before, prosecutors said.
McLaughlin was a youth group volunteer and had been associated with the Denver Church of Christ for up to 20 years. During that time, he had contact with hundreds of children, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office said.
John Lusk, senior minister at the Denver Church of Christ, had issued a statement early on in December 2008, when the Douglas County Sheriff's Office began investigating McLaughlin. Lusk said that the church was informed about "an offense against a young man" and had been cooperating with the investigation.
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