The Woodlawn church pastor convicted of sexually abusing a teenager was sentenced to 15 years in prison Thursday, sending the courtroom full of his followers into fits of crying and screaming.

“He was in a position of extreme trust … and to violate that trust is a very serious thing,” said Howard Circuit Judge Diane Leasure to the courtroom, packed with members of the Redemption Christian Fellowship Inc., where Gerald Fitroy Griffith was a pastor.

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