WARSAW (VA)
WRIC - ABC 8 [Richmond VA]
March 10, 2025
By Rolynn Wilson
An alleged sexual assault victim of a former Warsaw pastor facing 30 felony charges including aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with a child speaks exclusively with 8News.
Following a 15-month investigation, in December of 2023, Albert Wharton was arrested in South Carolina by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office and South Carolina’s Pickens County Sheriff’s Department.
According to the arrest warrant, Wharton was charged with a total of 30 felony charges — including 22 felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child under the age of 13 while in a custodial position and eight felony counts of aggravated sexual assault.
The alleged offenses were committed beginning in 1981 through 1996. Authorities say the alleged offenses happened while Wharton was a preacher at Berachah Academy, a former school located at Victory Baptist Church.
8News spoke with an alleged victim who wished to remain anonymous. She says she attended the academy from second grade until eleventh grade.
“What I went through was so overwhelming,” said the alleged victim. “It you just kind of have put a wall up so you don’t have to feel your feelings.”
For decades, she says she has bottled up her feeling while she continues to hold out hope for accountability. During this time, she says the lasting impacts have effected her as a parent.
“Something like that. I don’t know that you ever fully get over it,” the alleged victim went on to say. “And I never realized the impact it had on me until later in life. I have a hard time trusting people. I don’t want anybody. I mean, if I really don’t know the person, I don’t want anybody around my children.”
According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, over the past four decades Wharton has served at seven churches in Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and Florida.
8News reached out to Wharton’s defense attorney about these claims, and were told they do not have a comment on the case at this point.
Wharton is expected to appear in court again in May.