A Bible teacher at a Christian school in Florida allegedly had oral sex with a girl inside a church, authorities said.
Robert Russell Browning, 59, surrendered to police Saturday after the girl’s father told investigators at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office that he found inappropriate text messages, including nude photos, exchanged between Browning and his daughter last month, according to an arrest report obtained by WJXT.
“I found everything,” the father told investigators.
The underage girl, according to the arrest report, said she performed consensual oral sex on Browning as he touched her inappropriately inside Cedar Creek Baptist Church, which operates Cedar Creek Christian School, where Browning taught Bible studies, according to the school’s website. He has since been fired, according to the church’s pastor, although his name remained on the school’s faculty page as of Wednesday.
“Of all people, I would have never, ever thought that something like that could have happened,” Pastor John Montgomery told the station. “We live in a fallen world, and people do things that absolutely shock you.”
Like all other employees at the school, Browning was fingerprinted and passed an FBI-involved background check upon his hiring six years ago. The school is now installing additional surveillance cameras on its grounds to “make sure this can’t happen again,” Montgomery said.
Investigators also found an image of male genitalia allegedly depicting Browning that was sent from a phone number associated with him, the Florida Times-Union reports. Text messages on the girl’s cellphone also contained conversations referencing video FaceTime chats while nude, according to the arrest warrant.
The girl’s father, meanwhile, said he’s livid that someone in a position of trust allegedly victimized his daughter.
“It’s torn my family apart,” he told WJXT. “My daughter doesn’t want to speak to me anymore. I’m actually glad this is getting out because this is so sick and people really need to pay attention to who they’re hiring and who their kids are with. We live in a sick world.”
Browning has been charged with lewd battery on a person between the ages of 12 and 16, transmission of material harmful to minors and lewd and lascivious molestation. He remains jailed on $250,000 bail ahead of his next scheduled court date on Aug. 28, jail records show.
Source: Read Full Article