Broward County

Fort Lauderdale youth pastor faces more charges of molesting boys

 

A 23-year-old man accused Jeffery London of abusing him when he was 11 to 18 years old and lived with him. Another alleged victim stepped forward recently.

 

Youth pastor Jeffery London, 48, of the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, who faces charges of molesting boys who lived with him.
Youth pastor Jeffery London, 48, of the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, who faces charges of molesting boys who lived with him.
---- / Broward Sheriff's Office
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Sun Sentinel

A second Broward man has accused a Fort Lauderdale youth pastor of sexually molesting him for almost a decade, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Jeffery London, 48, was arrested Jan. 25 at his home in Lauderdale Lakes after returning from conducting Bible study at the Bible Church of God in Fort Lauderdale, sheriff’s detectives said.

He was charged Thursday with five more counts of sexual battery, bringing the total to 10 counts, according to court records.

The latest accuser, who is 23 years old, claims that when he was between the ages of 11 and 18, he was coerced and sometimes paid to engage in sex acts with London while living with him, according to the arrest report.

The first accuser, now 18, recently told a friend from church that he had been abused repeatedly during the decade he lived with London. The accuser’s mother had left him in London’s care when he was 8 because she faced financial difficulties, the report stated.

London, a cancer survivor, worked at the Bible Church of God, was the dean of students at Eagle Charter Academy in Lauderdale Lakes from 2003 to 2009, was a counselor at the Boys and Girls Club in Fort Lauderdale and probably worked at other area schools and churches, investigators said.

He has been a father figure to more than 15 boys over the years. More than a few were left orphaned by murders and suicides. One was born to a mother with a cocaine addiction. Another was the son of a woman who died of AIDS. Yet another was left on his doorstep when the boy’s family scattered after a hurricane. He introduced them as his sons. They called him Dad, London said.

“You’ve got to put out. You’ve got to be there for them. Love them. Discipline them. Stand by them,” London said in an interview with the Sun Sentinel in 2006. “You can be the link in a child’s life that holds that life together.”

The Broward Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit has asked anyone who might have been a victim of or has information about London to contact Detective Julie Bower at 954-321-4240 or Broward Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 954-493-8477 or browardcrimestoppers.org.

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