KAUFMAN COUNTY–Inside a Kaufman County courtroom Sept. 1, sexual abuse victims faced the man who preyed on them while attending Grey’s Prairie Mennonite Church in Kaufman. 
In a press release, Kaufman County District Attorney Erleigh Norville Wiley announced the conviction of Stanley Gerald Champ of Scurry for continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, a first-degree felony. Following a four-day trial before Judge Casey Blair in the 86th District Court of Kaufman County, a jury found Champ guilty and sentenced him to life. 
During the trial, jurors heard testimony that Champ met his victim and her family at the age of four when they moved to the community to join the Gray’s Prairie congregation. The jury also heard of the defendant’s abuse of that victim from ages five to nine years old. Additionally, jurors heard the testimony of his abuse of prior victims.  All victims were minor children at the time of the abuse. Victims who will not be identified addressed the defendant. “You stole my innocence before I even knew how to write my own name,” and “You pulled me into a world of hurt and a world of sheer terror.” 
One victim explained that when they came forward in 2019, they were called a liar and they had only dreamed they had been assaulted but it wasn’t a dream it was a nightmare. “Gerald sought out and took pleasure in little girls being injured and violated because he liked it,” stated another victim. 
Prosecutors stated that there could be victims besides those in Kaufman County because the church sent Champ to work in other states. 
At the conclusion of the testimony, jurors responded with a verdict of life imprisonment. Prosecution was led by Assistant District Attorneys Ashley Holman and Leslie Odom, District Attorney Chief Investigator Mike Holley and Paralegal Amanda Morris. The District Attorney’s office said they were thankful to the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Department and New Holland, Pa., Police Department for their work investigating this case and they also thanked the victims “who so bravely told their story.”
District Attorney Wiley emphasized, “No one is above the law.”