Grace Christian Fellowship Church is one many families in Andalusia praised at on Sunday mornings. A place where a sense of security and trust was felt. "It's frightening, I don't want anything to happen ever to my children or to any child really," says Andalusia resident Joanna Straughn. Straughn is raising four little ones. To hear of a pastor allegedly committing sexual acts on children in her community...is unthought-of. "It disturbs me to think that it may be true," says Straughn. that thought hit close to home as authorities arrested 52-year-old Ralph lee Aaron for 152 counts of sexual crimes including sexual torture and sodomy on a child under the age of 12. "the first child, his mother had heard a rumor from someone else about a previous allegation...she sat down with her child as parents do and asked him very straight forward questions and surprisingly enough in today's society her son was very open and honest and discussed these things in length to her," says lead investigator Wesley Snodgrass. Authorities say they believe the sexual acts didn't take place at the church, rather a place some call home and others take their families. "Some of them had been on camping trips, and local areas...the other crimes occurred primarily at the home and then out behind the home," says Snodgrass. Investigators also seized computers and electronics from Aarons home containing child pornography from the internet and photos of local children. "You trust your pastor, you know you put a lot of faith in him as your pastor and them being children you know just that much more easier," says Covington County Sheriff Dennis Meeks.
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