Gary Thompson has been jailed for eight months after admitting two counts of indecent assault.
Northern Ireland's former chief fire officer A judge said the victim, Nikella Holmes, had shown "courage and persistence" throughout the legal process and had been "exploited and subjected to serious offending".
The court was told text messages between the two started as "playful" but soon became "flirtatious and sexualised". But the court was told that recently, Thompson had accepted he "groomed his victim" and abused his position. "He would have gone into the office and sent me inappropriate messages, regarding the fact that I was wearing my school uniform and that he found that really attractive."He then put me on the desk. He was standing there touching my legs and I could see other youth members through the glass in the doors to the foyer and I was just terrified."I asked him not to talk to me outside of church because I needed it to stop.
"It's been a very long, very difficult journey and if I had been doing it just for myself I wouldn't have gotten this far.""In hindsight I can see the grooming started the moment I met him, and I don't believe someone does that once off so yes, I believe he has more victims," she said. Ms Holmes said she hoped sharing her story would help churches be more open about the issue of sexual abuse.
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