Central Texas judge says pastor, wife committed worst child sex abuse he’s ever seen

By Liz Farmer
Dallas Morning News
October 22, 2016

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2016/10/22/central-texas-judge-says-pastor-wife-committed-worst-child-sex-abuse-ever-seen

Misty Rae Hopkins

A Central Texas woman was sentenced to five life sentences this week for sexual assault of her children, who reported the abuse after escaping from her house, officials said.  

The trial started Monday in Burnet, about 60 miles northwest of Austin, and focused on sexual abuse committed by both Misty Rae Hopkins and her late husband, John Hopkins, who acted together, as well as apart, according to a press release from the district attorney's office. 

John Hopkins was a pastor at a church in the area during the time of the offenses. He died in 2012.

Assistant District Attorney Stacy Burke told the jury that Misty Hopkins is the worst pedophile she's seen in her career, adding that she is a truly evil person who tortured her children.

The jury deliberated for about an hour before finding Misty Hopkins, 49, guilty of five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and four charges of indecency with a child, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

The abuse of one of the children occurred repeatedly from the time she was 7 years old until she was 21, according to the DA's office. 

It wasn't reported until the children were able to escape the home after they'd all turned 17, the American-Statesman reports. 

Four of Hopkins' children testified that the couple isolated them, hiding them from others and keeping them out of school, according to Statesman reporter Philip Jankowski. 

Judge Evan Stubbs sentenced Hopkins to five life sentences for aggravated sexual assault of a child and 20 years on each of four sentences for indecency with a child. 

Stubbs told Hopkins during sentencing Wednesday that he had nothing good to say about her and that the case is the worst abuse he's seen in his 14 years of practicing law. 

"Yesterday you said that your husband was the head of the house and God will hold him responsible," Stubbs said. "And I'll simply tell you I hope he does and I hope he does you as well. And that's for another day."

The middle child, now 25, said the abuse began when her family moved to Burnet when she was 7. That's when her mother changed, she said.

"It was like my mom had died and this person replaced her," Holly told KXAN-TV.

"I knew that what they were doing was wrong, but of course the people that I trusted most were my parents."