NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – A federal judge convicted a Norfolk man who had served as a church youth group leader Monday on charges of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, according to the Department of Justice.
Charles Willoughby III, 39, faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison when he is expected to be sentenced April 19, 2023.
Willoughby, according to court records and trial evidence, served as a youth group leader at New Life Worship Center in Norfolk and from 2006 to 2012, routinely groomed minor teen girls who were part of its youth program in order to sexually abuse them.
While chaperoning youth group members on a bus trip to Georgia for a national youth group conference on June 26, 2012, Willoughby forced a then-15-year-old girl, identified as Jane Doe, to engage in a sexual act that she did not disclose until 2018, court records and trial evidence indicated.
Other victims were identified after that disclosure.