Former South Carolina Pastor Gets 40 Years in Prison for Sexually Assaulting Daughters

A disgraced South Carolina pastor who was convicted of molesting his two young daughters during the 1990s has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office confirmed in a statement that William Benton Oswald, 62, received his sentence last week.

Given his age, he'll likely never see freedom again.

On Dec. 1, jurors convicted him on three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct of a minor for sexually assaulting his two daughters from the early 1990s into the early 2000s.

Oswald received 20 years for each of his daughters. The abuse began when the girls were 8.

The repeated sexual assaults happened at Dunn's Chapel Church in West Columbia, South Carolina, where Oswald had been the pastor.

"As a pastor and influential member of the communities he claimed to serve, the defendant was able to hide these heinous acts from the public for many years," the statement offers. "Over the course of the five-day trial, jurors heard testimony from the defendant's now adult children about the multiple acts of molestation and abuse they were forced to endure at their father's hand."

The daughters said the trauma from their childhood has had a lifelong impact on them as well as their own families and friends.

"As with most cases like this one, where the children were unable to come forward with the allegations until many years later, there was very little forensic evidence linking the defendant to these crimes," the statement adds. "Thus, the jury had to rely almost exclusively on the testimony of the parties themselves."

The former pastor maintained his innocence throughout the trial.

The women said their father molested them each more than 100 times.