Ernest Willis, 52, of Gilford said he was “sorry and ashamed for this thoughtless act of sexual misconduct.” But in his lengthy statement he did not admit he forcibly raped the girl. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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The 15-year-old New Hampshire girl was pregnant, scared and humiliated when she was made to stand before her Baptist church congregation 14 years ago and apologize for her immorality.
Tuesday, it was a former church member’s turn to apologize before he was sentenced to 15-30 years in prison for forcible rape.
Ernest Willis, 52, of Gilford said he was “sorry and ashamed for this thoughtless act of sexual misconduct.” But in his lengthy statement he did not admit he forcibly raped the girl.
Listening telephone from Arizona, victim Tina Anderson said she was “thrilled” with the sentence.
“It’s a huge amount of vindication for me,” Anderson, now 29, told The Associated Press. “I was never really believed, no matter how many times I said it was not consensual. Now it’s been proven in a court of law that he’s guilty and he’s been given a significant sentence.”
The AP typically does not identify victims of sexual assault, but Anderson asked that her name be used and has given numerous media interviews.
Willis, wearing bright orange prison garb and shackled at the ankles, also apologized to his ex-wife and their children for the embarrassment and financial ruin they’ve suffered and to Concord’s Trinity Baptist Church for the ridicule his case has wrought.
The case remained unsolved for years because Concord police could not locate the teen. Unbeknownst to them, the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church helped ship the girl to Colorado, with her mother’s consent, to live with a Baptist couple she did not know and put her infant daughter up for adoption.
Police located Anderson last year after a former church member posted to a blog decrying the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist movement. The post described Anderson’s church discipline session at Trinity Baptist. Willis was arrested in May 2010.
Anderson said Tuesday she would have loved to see others involved in her case held accountable, but is satisfied with Willis’s punishment.
In imposing the sentence, Merrimack Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler said Willis betrayed the trust the girl placed in him and robbed her of her childhood. Willis faced up to 54 years in prison on convictions for statutory rape and aggravated felonious sex assault.
A jury in May convicted Willis of raping the girl twice in 1997 — once while he was giving her driving lessons and weeks later at her Concord home. His lawyers say he will appeal those convictions.
