WEST VIRGINIA
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Victim sexually abused by Probert describes ‘every parent’s nightmare’
By SAMANTHA PERRY Bluefield Daily Telegraph
PRINCETON — Tears flowed down anguished faces in a Mercer County courtroom Friday as victims of a man described as “every parent’s nightmare” learned he would spend a mere fraction of time behind bars rather than the hundreds of years he was facing.
Members of the courtroom audience sat in shocked silence as the judge delivered his sentence and they watched deputies lead a handcuffed Timothy Probert out of the room.
Victims, family members, prosecutors and others then lingered in the courtroom, sharing hugs, openly weeping and expressing dismay at the judge’s mandate.
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Probert, 58, of Princeton, pleaded guilty in April to 37 charges related to child sexual abuse that occurred while he served as a youth volunteer at Westminster Presbyterian Church and mentor for the Working to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect (WE CAN) program.
Probert, who was facing 171 to 489 years in prison, was sentenced to 15 to 35 years by retired Fayette County Judge Charles Vickers. Vickers was appointed as a special judge on the case in 2015 after Mercer County Circuit Court judges Omar Aboulhosn, Derek Swope and William “Bill” Sadler recused themselves citing conflicts of interest.
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