FLORIDA
Local 10
Author: Andrea Torres, Local10.com Reporter/Producer, atorres@local10.com
FORT LAUDERDALE –
Former youth pastor Jeffrey London cried while he was on the stand Tuesday, as he defended himself against accusations that he sexually assaulted four boys.
The four boys, who are now ages 16 to 26, said the pastor abused them for years when they were teenagers. London, who was charged with 27 counts of child abuse, said he allowed the boys to stay in his home, because they were in need of a paternal figure.
As defense attorney Lourdes Gonzalez questioned him, he stared at jurors when he said he was helping boys in need.
“I had a need to help,” London, 50, said in front of Judge Michael Usan in Broward County court in Fort Lauderdale.
He met the neglected kids when he was a counselor at the Boys and Girls Club of Fort Lauderdale, a youth pastor at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, and when he was a dean at Eagle Academy, a Lauderdale Lakes charter school.
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