WEST VIRGINIA
Christian Post
BY MORGAN LEE , CHRISTIAN POST REPORTER
January 7, 2014
A West Virginia pastor pleaded guilty on Jan. 6 to sexually abusing a 14-year-old, female family member.
Johnnie Winnell, 60, who formerly pastored United Gospel Mission in Elkview, W.Va., was arrested in April last year and charged with three counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian, reported The WV Gazette.
Winnell admitted to investigators last year that there were three separate occurrences when he molested the girl while she slept in his home.
According to The Charleston Daily Mail, Winnell told investigators he touched the victim “once under her clothes while she was lying on the couch with him” when he believed she was asleep. The second time, “he took her hand and ‘swiped it across his crotch’ over his clothes.” In the last act, Winnell said that the victim had been sleeping in bed with him and his wife when he “touched her over her clothes.”
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