South Carolina Pastor Sentenced to 40 Years for Sexually Abusing His Daughters

A former South Carolina pastor has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting his two daughters over a period that exceeded 10 years.

The former pastor of Dunn’s Chapel in West Columbia, William Oswald, 62, was convicted on December 1 on three counts of criminal sexual conduct of a minor in the first degree for sexually assaulting his two daughters from a period that began in the early 1990s and stretched into the early 2000s, according to a statement released by Bryan Gipson of the Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

The two daughters, now adults, recently came forward with accusations of the abuse at the hands of their father. The women said they were each assaulted more than 100 times by the former pastor, and that much of it happened at the parsonage provided to the family by Dunn’s Chapel.

There was no forensic evidence available for use during trial, so prosecutors leaned heavily on testimony of the two daughters. “Over the course of the five-day trial, jurors heard testimony from the Defendant’s now adult children about the multiple acts of molestation and abuse they were forced to endure at their father’s hand,” Gipson said in the statement. “The women went on to share how the trauma they experienced as children, as well as the trauma they still bear today, has impacted not only their lives, but the lives of their family and friends as well.”

Oswald spent hours of testimony in trial proclaiming his innocence, but at the end of the five-day trial, the jury found him guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in the South Carolina Department of Corrections for each daughter he abused, for a total of 40 years.

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