NASSAU – Youth pastor Colton Albury led a double life by sexually assaulting a child, a jury found.
The 33-year-old, who worked with thousands of minors, was on Thursday convicted of indecent assault and unlawful sexual intercourse.
As a result of the jury’s verdict, Senior Justice Bernard Turner remanded Albury into custody pending sentencing.
The penalty phase of his trial will begin on August 17.
The majority of the panel accepted that the affable pastor is a sexual predator.
Prosecutors alleged that Albury violated the girl from June 2016 through April 2017. The victim was 12 when the sexual abuse began; she was 13 when she told her parents about it.
Albury, who grew up in an orphanage after his parents abandoned him and his siblings, was welcomed into his victim’s family at age 16.
Her parents met Albury when he was 11 while doing outreach with their church.
However, he betrayed them by molesting their daughter.
The prosecution produced five pages of WhatsApp messages of the married, father-of-two begging the girl for sex.
In the raunchy messages, Albury told the child, “I don’t have to f*** you. Just let me play with it.”
He also told her that she was beautiful and that his wedding ring meant nothing to him.
Jurors accepted by a count of 7-2 that Albury caressed the girl’s thighs and breasts during tickling games.
His criminal behavior escalated to unlawful sexual intercourse when he penetrated the girl with his fingers, six of the nine jurors found.
Prosecutors said the sexually explicit messages and the girl’s attitude change towards Albury corroborated her allegations.
On the other hand, Albury’s lawyer, Miranda Adderley, suggested that the WhatsApp conversations were fabricated.
In the alternative, she argued that the messages were from someone else.
Adderley said you could assign any name to a number in a cell phone’s contact list.
Erica Ingraham prosecuted the case.
Copyright Bahamas Court News
