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An ex-pastor at Calvary Fellowship, a nondenominational church in Downingtown, Philadelphia, has been jailed for three-six years for sexually assaulting and impregnating one of his young parishioners.
The 35-year-old American from Exton, Jacob Malone who was arrested in January 2016, was sentenced Friday after entering guilty pleas to institutional sex assault, corruption of minors and child endangerment, NY Daily reported.
The court heard that he began to sexually assault the girl in the fall of 2014, impregnated her when she was in her late teens and she gave birth a year ago to their daughter.
She, however, maintained that the former pastor took advantage of her ‘mentally, physically, and spiritually.’
Admitting to the crime, Malone told the court that he gave the girl alcohol but said the sexual encounters were consensual denying that he raped her. But he apologized, saying his ‘failures and weaknesses’ had hurt her, her family and his family. ‘She admired me and trusted me, and I betrayed that,’ he added.
In a statement, his defense attorney Evan Kelly said that he ‘has always been adamant’ he did not rape the teenager but has admitted to other crimes. ‘And for that, he is embarrassed, ashamed and truly remorseful,’ Kelly said.
Although, prosecutors had reached an earlier plea deal to hand him a two-year minimum jail term, but Judge Jacqueline Cody rejected that deal a month ago and slammed him with three-six years jail terms.
She said the case was ‘one of the times when the court system fails’ and said even with the stiffer sentence in the new plea agreement Malone would be ‘serving a sentence much lighter than the crime deserves.’
Malone who will get credit for more than one year he has served since his arrest in January 2016 will sign the sex offender register for 15 years.