Ex-pastor sentenced to 18 years in child sexual abuse case
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MOUNT HOLLY, N.J. — A former pastor who co-founded a Christian music festival before admitting he had sexual contact with children and being branded a “wolf” has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Harry Thomas, who’s 75 years old, was the pastor of Come Alive New Testament Church in Medford and a co-founder of the Creation Festival, billed as the country’s largest Christian music festival. He failed in a bid to withdraw his guilty plea in sexual assaults and other crimes involving five minors and was sentenced on Friday.
As part of a plea agreement earlier this year, Thomas acknowledged sexually assaulting a 9-year-old in 2005, having sexual contact with three girls ages 7 to 9 in 2000 and 2010 and exposing himself to a girl between 2008 and 2010.
Relatives of the victims were in court during sentencing, and in testimony two of them described Thomas as a “ravenous wolf” and a “hypocrite” who professed to be a man of God while victimizing children. Burlington County assistant prosecutor Stephen Eife called Thomas “a devil in disguise.”
