Child Abuse Awareness: Prosecuting Abusers

FLORIDA
WUWF

[with audio]

By DAVE DUNWOODY

With a spate of arrests and convictions on child abuse and child sexual assault charges in the Pensacola area the past few weeks, there are concerns about how the grownups can step in and offer more protection.

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month, and this is part one of a three-part series entitled “Suffer the Little Children.”

Perhaps the highest-profile case at this time is that of 54-year-old Charlie Hamrick, who faces 14 counts of child sexual abuse. Thirty other counts were dropped by the State Attorney’s Office. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says the attacks go back at least two decades, and maybe even further.

“Mr. Hamrick was a Sunday school teacher at Pine Forest Methodist Church, part of the youth ministries at New Dimensions, and also at Harvest Christian Center,” said Morgan. “He was also a football coach at one time at Tate High School.”

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