MASSACHUSETTS
Sun Chronicle
BY DAVID LINTON SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
ATTLEBORO – The former assistant pastor of Grace Baptist Church and principal of Grace Baptist Christian Academy was sentenced to prison Thursday after pleading guilty to molesting one of his female students.
The Rev. Jeffrey A. Nichols, 48, was sentenced to a maximum five years in prison after pleading guilty in Fall River Superior Court, according to a spokeswoman for the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.
Nichols, who was a trusted assistant to church Pastor Jeff Bailey for 23 years, admitted to molesting one of his seventh-grade students beginning in 2008 when she was 13. The abuse continued until the end of the school year in June 2013.
Nichols repeatedly indecently touched the girl and also made sexual comments to her. He asked her to expose herself to him and exposed himself to her, prosecutors said after his arrest.
His arrest shocked Bailey and the church, where Nichols had been a respected married father of three children. His wife was also a teacher at the school.
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