Tate County Minister Indicted on Child Sex Charges

Clarion-Ledger
March 27, 2013

http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20130327/NEWS/303270048?cid=dlvr.it

A 71 year-old Mississippi pastor has been indicted on child sex charges and is being held on $1 million bond, according to media reports.

A Tate County grand jury indicted Larry Singleton on 18 felony counts. Singleton, former minister of Bay Springs Baptist Church, is accused of abusing a boy who is now 18.

Singleton was arrested in December after the Tate County Sheriff's Department received a complaint from the victim. Investigators say the sexual abuse started when the victim was 11 and continued for several years.

Singleton is charged with fondling, sexual battery and child pornography.

“We hope others will have now have the courage to come forward to the police and prosecutors, get help, heal and protect others,” said Houston, Texas, resident Amy Smith, who pushed for charges to be lodged against former Clinton High choir director and church music minister John Langworthy, who pleaded guilty in January to molesting children.

“Child molesters rarely harm just one child, and they never retire. Silence only helps the predator and endangers more kids,” said Smith, director of Houston’s Space City Survivors Network for those Abused by priests, an organization dedicated to exposing sexually abusive clergy. “The light of truth and knowledge is our greatest tool to protect kids.”