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Former pastor sentenced for sexually assaulting children

A former pastor who admitted to having sexually assaulted three children while he lived in Andreas was sentenced to six to 23 months in Schuylkill County Prison Tuesday by Schuylkill County Judge Charles Miller.

Marvin Leroy Mosley was sentenced on a felony count of indecent assault of a child under the age of 13, and to five years probation on a second count of indecent assault to a child under the age of 13 which will be served after the jail term is up.

The sentence for two misdemeanor counts of sexual assault of a person under age 16 was five years’ probation to be served concurrent – meaning at the same time as the original probation.

Two felony counts of corruption of minors when the defendant was at least 18 years old drew a sentence of 3-23 months to be served concurrently with the 6-23 months on the first charge.

Mosley was also ordered to pay over $16,000 in restitution for counseling and health bills connected with the case.

Judge Miller said an investigation by the Sexual Offender Assessment Board in Harrisburg determined Mosley did not meet the criteria to be a sexual predator, but he has to undergo intensive probation and parole, and will be listed in the sex offenders’ registry for life, which has stringent requirements for Mosley to meet.

Patricia Joseph, the county’s victim witness coordinator, read a letter to the court from one of the victims, which read in part:

“You disgraced God and the church. You took something that was not yours, but you did not succeed in destroying my life. I am on the path to healing. I want to protect others by letting them know this can happen even in a church.”

God’s Missionary Church is located at 139 N. 6th St. in Lehighton, but the incidents allegedly occurred at the farm he resided at in West Penn Township.

According to court documents, one of the women, now 26, reported the assaults to police on April 27, saying Mosley sexually assaulted her and two others when they were children. The assaults continued over the course of 15 years.

According to an affidavit of probable cause filed by police, the then-newlywed Mosley and his wife came to live with the victim’s grandparents in 2003, as there was no parsonage at the Snyder County church he pastored.

It was shortly after that he began to behave inappropriately toward her. By 2004, he would molest her on four-wheeler rides in the woods and on car rides.

In 2007, the affidavit states, the Mosleys were moving from her grandparents’ home to Lehighton. He held her against his body, and that same year, he molested her in the basement.

The victim’s two sisters said they, too, were assaulted by Mosley.

One was 10 years old in 2005 when he began molesting her. The incidents happened in a hay mow, on four-wheeler rides, and while his wife was upstairs teaching her sister to play the piano. The incidents continued through 2012.

The other sister declined to become involved in the investigation.

Mosley admitted to police to touching one of the victims sexually when he was 28 and married. Mosley “indicated he was married for seven years and did not know what sex was,” the affidavit states.

“He said he was lost and unfulfilled,” and that he “felt a chemistry” when he was around girls.

“He stated that he did some things he should not have done. He stated that he was too free with his hands, and elaborated, saying he had touched the girls in ways he should not have,” the affidavit states.

Mosley told police he started with the oldest sister, then moved on to the middle sister, and then to the youngest.

Mosley “stated that he would get sexually aroused when the girls walked into the room, and that there were sexual overtones everywhere and that he was starved for sex.”