Pastor pleads guilty

By Uriah A. Kiser

Published: May 28, 2008

STAFFORD — A local pastor from Mount Hope Baptist Church in Stafford County has pleaded guilty for molesting a teenage boy in the mid-1980s.

Rev. George Oscar Lowe, 71, pleaded guilty in Stafford Circuit Court on Monday to two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. Seven other charges against Lowe were dropped.

Lowe has served as pastor of the Stafford church for 43 years.

The now 40-year-old victim said the abuse began in 1984 when he was a sophomore attending Stafford High School.

The victim said he sought out counseling from Lowe, who was his pastor at the time, about the “typical teenage problems” that he was facing at that age.

During the counseling sessions, the pastor made advances toward the victim and began molesting him.

The pastor told the victim that his mother would send him away if he stopped seeking counseling.

In 1988 the victim came forward to the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, but with not enough evidence in the case, the department dismissed his claim, according to the victim.

“I knew that this wasn’t God that was doing this to me; this was a man that was abusing the power that God had given him,“ said the victim.

The victim went on to serve for two years in the Virginia National Guard, and for two months in the U.S. Army. While there he had one documented unsuccessful suicide attempt, which the victim said stemmed from the molestation. After his release from the Army, the victim said he became addicted to methamphetamines, was arrested for possession, and was sentenced to 10 years in a Utah State Prison.

The victim said he was approached by Stafford sheriff’s authorities in the Rappahannock Regional Jail, as he was waiting to be returned to Utah after a parole visit, and was asked to wear a wire into Lowe’s office. They were reopening the case.

Under the guise of seeking further counseling, the victim was instructed to try to get Lowe to admit to the molestation on tape.

“He said that he didn’t know the molestation would have had that much effect on me,” said the victi, who is ready to move on with his life. He said he is enrolled at Germanna Community College and is working to get his truck driver’s license.

Lowe faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when he sentenced. He was removed as pastor from the church earlier this year when the allegations surfaced.