After the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, a Georgia pastor shared his opinion on the LGBT community and prompted a huge backlash of shock and disgust. Taking to his Twitter account, Kenneth Adkins declared that he’d “been through so much with these Jacksonville Homosexuals that I don’t see none of them as victims. I see them as getting what they deserve!!”
Although Adkins later claimed that he was only referring to local residents, the timing of the tweet just after the most horrific targeted armed attack on the gay community in U.S. history was enough to warrant the backlash.
Now almost a year later, Adkins will be spending the rest of his life in prison for child molestation.
According to The Florida Times Union, Adkins was coercing two teens who he was supposed to be mentoring “to have sexual intercourse in front of him.”
Pastor Kenneth Adkins, who tweeted Pulse nightclub victims deserved what they got, gets life for child molestation https://t.co/bBP8g5acW0 pic.twitter.com/OBkdRTohKf
— Dr. Jeffrey Guterman (@JeffreyGuterman) April 27, 2017
Prosecutors said Adkins “methodically groomed” the two to have sexual intercourse, starting when they were just 15. After an hour of deliberation, the jury found hm guilty of eight child molestation-related charges.
The male accuser told the jury last week that Adkins watched them have sex so many times that he lost track. He said the sex occurred in the church office, at the beach and in Adkins’ car. The male, according to testimony presented during the trial, initially told an Army investigator that his girlfriend was 16 and he was 15 when the activity first began. On the witness stand, the young man said his then-girlfriend was 15.
This Tuesday, he was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison with an additional 20 years for each charge.
Watch a report on the story from First Coast News in the video below:
[Friendly Atheist] Featured image via NBC News screen grab
