A church minister was jailed after abusing his status as a pillar of the community, hiding the fact he raped his own daughter. Mark Anderson, 54, who worked in an Apostolic Pentecostal church in Hackney, north London, raped his daughter Rebekah Anderson twice in their home when she was aged nine and 12.
He sexually assaulted and attacked her when she was 14 causing actual bodily harm as she tried to warn her mother of the abuse. Now 22, Miss Anderson chose to waive her right to anonymity to encourage other victims to speak out. “I couldn't take it anymore , it was too much of a build-up, it was holding me back and I couldn't take it,” she said.
Her father used his position in the church to abuse her between 2003 and 2009. “He would use his position to hide what he’s done,” “[He would say] ‘I couldn't have possibly done that, I'm so high up in the church’. He was hidden by the fact that he believes he is a Christian.” Ms Anderson said.
Sentencing Anderson, Judge Christopher Hehir said he had “committed the gravest offence”. “What you did involved the most horrendous abuse of trust. You preyed upon your own daughter. You used her for your own sexual gratification. You chose a situation where Rebekah would be venerable.”
Mark Anderson now faces 19 years in prison, convicted of on two charges of rape, one of assault by penetration and one of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
