Popular Alabama televangelist Acton Bowen is sentenced to 1,008 years, the maximum penalty allowed, after pleading guilty to 28 charges of raping and sexually assaulting multiple children.
In addition to the 1,008 year sentence, Bowen was also ordered to pay $840,000 in fines.
Before his arrest in 2018, Bowen was the host of xlroads TV, a global broadcast reaching millions every week.
AL.com reports:
Alabama evangelist Paul Acton Bowen was sentenced Friday to 1,008 years in prison – the maximum on all counts – for his guilty pleas to sexually abusing a half dozen teenagers.
In addition, he was ordered to pay $840,000 in fines for all counts, also the maximum.
ABC News reports:
Acton Bowen, the evangelist who served as a youth minister for teenage boys and became a best-selling author was given the maximum sentence for all 28 charges related to sexually abusing six teenagers in Etowah County on Friday. The sentences are to be served consecutively which means Bowen would serve roughly 1,008 years before being released.
Before being arrested for raping and sexually assaulting children, Bowen, founder of Acton Bowen Outreach Ministries, was a wildly popular youth evangelist and the host of xlroads TV, “a worldwide broadcast viewed weekly by millions of teens and adults in every city in America and over 170 countries around the world.”
Reporting on Bowen’s popularity, ABC News notes:
The news of Bowen’s arrest in 2018 shocked many in east Alabama’s Christian community where he was considered a hometown hero. Bowen had served as chaplain for the 2012 Olympics, made appearances on Fox News, and promoted himself as a spiritual adviser to Hollywood Stars including Justin Beiber.
According to reports, Bowen offered his underage victims hundreds of dollars to perform sexual acts, victims he met through his youth ministry.
In a statement submitted during the hearing, one of Bowen’s underage victims said:
I saw myself as damaged goods without realizing I’d been manipulated by a true professional.
Before being sentenced, Bowen apologized both to his own family and his victims, at one point declaring:
The shame and guilt I feel is overwhelming and has been for a long time. My heart was never wanting to hurt anybody but my mind was not well.
Bottom line: After pleading guilty to 28 charges of raping and sexually assaulting multiple children, popular Alabama televangelist Acton Bowen has been sentenced to to 1,008 years in prison, the maximum penalty allowed under the law.
“If kids got raped by clowns as often as kids get raped by preachers it would be against the law to take your kid to the circus.”
– Dan Savage
