Ex-youth pastor in Bellingham gets 5 years for rape of teen
BELLINGHAM, Wash. — The ex-youth pastor of a Bellingham church grimaced, wept and struggled to breathe in court Wednesday, as he listened to a teenage girl — standing feet away — describe the lasting harm he caused when he raped her countless times.
Christopher Lee Trent was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually abusing the girl, who went to Bellingham Baptist Church when she was under age 16.
Court records describe how he kept the abuse a secret for about two years.
The girl told authorities Trent called her his “sex slave,” and forced her to endure sex acts that left her bleeding and in pain for days. He would monitor her conversations with boys and, at times, told her not to eat. She feared he would kill her, if it would keep his secret from getting out.
Police arrested Trent on July 18, 2016, as he was loading a U-Haul to move out of Bellingham. He never denied the abuse. Trent pleaded guilty in March to four counts of third-degree child rape. He had no prior criminal record.
At a sentencing hearing Wednesday, a Bellingham police detective wrapped an arm around the girl as she read an excruciating, tearful letter to Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis. The girl stood at a podium a few feet to Trent’s right, and described how he had stolen her dignity and her teenage years.
“I lived my life in fear of the next thing he would do to me, what the next day would bring, and if it would bring more mental and physical pain than the day before,” the girl said. “Your honour, I never knew someone could harm another individual as much as Chris did, when he put his hands on me for the first time.”
She begged the judge to give Trent the highest sentence possible. Tears rolled down Trent’s cheeks as he listened. He pressed his fingers to his temples, and dry-heaved at one point in the girl’s 10-minute statement, when she talked about how much pain he put her through.
Trent’s hands shook when it was his turn to address the judge. He began by confessing — “before God and man” — that he was guilty, that he was sorry for how he hurt the church, and that what happened was entirely his fault.
A plea deal suggested Trent serve five years in prison, the most allowed under state law, according to deputy prosecutor Eric Richey.
Montoya-Lewis said she found it extraordinarily frustrating that, in her reading of the law, she could not hand down more prison time.