Texas Deacon Charged with Sexually Assaulting 2 Young Boys, Police Suspect More Victims

News4SanAntonio
May 4, 2017

http://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/texas-deacon-charged-with-sexually-assaulting-2-young-boys-police-suspect-more-victims

Court documents provide sickening details of sexual assaults allegedly carried out by 55-year-old Barry Durrell, a volunteer and an ordained deacon at a Houston church.

Police say the victims in the complaint -- two boys, ages two and seven -- are likely not the only child victims.

Durrell is behind bars on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child under six years of age.

"The evil person here is this suspect," Officer Lee Donovan of the Houston Police Department's Special Victims Division said. "His main point of everything he did was to gain the trust of people in that community, to gain the trust of the people who worked at that church before anything happened."

According to a court documents, a mother found her 2-year-old boy at West Houston Seventh Day Adventist church inside a locked closet with Durrell.

When she took her son to the car, she "found (her son's) diaper down to his knees."

A medical test showed evidence consistent with sexual assault.

Police say in another case involving a 7-year-old, Durrell went with the boy and his family to Memorial City Mall and that Durrell took the boy to the bathroom.

The boy told investigators the "defendant would follow him and he would pull down his underwear."

Later that same day, court papers say "his mother noticed that there was something wrong with him."

Investigators said Durrell moved to Houston in 1990 and has been at the church ever since; first as a volunteer, then an ordained deacon.

"The reason we're asking for help is that he lived in several apartment complexes on the West side of Houston where he would have had access to children," Donovan said.

Residents of those apartments said they plan on talking to their children to make sure they haven't come in contact with Durrell.

The church declined interviews but gave a statement saying they strongly condemn the alleged offenses and they are cooperating with law enforcement.

It was also discovered Durrell has a prior conviction for sexually abusing a child in California in 1988.