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'I Am So Tired': Child Rape Survivor Blasts Former Sunday School Pastor Who Sexually Assaulted Her For Requesting A Pardon
Allison Black Cornelius was subjected to heinous sexual abuse at the hands of Leon Albert Prince, but he's now petitioning the state of Alabama for a clean slate.
A survivor blasted the Sunday school pastor who molested and raped her as a child after he put in a request to be pardoned for the crime.
“I wanted to say to you personally, I am so tired of having to monitor and babysit you," Allison Black Cornelius said in a Facebook Live video she made on Thursday, directed at Leon Albert Prince.
Prince, 76, molested and raped her multiple times in 1972 when she was just 7 years old, AL.com reports. He was a pastor at her Alabama church. She told AL.com last year that Prince had threatened to kill her dog if she didn’t submit to the sexual abuse. While the horrendous acts were not reported at the time, as Cornelius grew up she told friends and loved ones, according to court records. When she feared that he was hurting other kids, she made an official report.
While many others have accused Prince of abusing them when they were young, Cornelius — who's now the executive director of the Greater Birmingham Humane Society — was the only one who saw it all the way through the legal system. He was convicted in 1991 for carnal knowledge of a girl less than 12 years old, according to court records. He was sentenced to 30 years behind bars but only served 15. The former pastor was then released from prison in 2006.
Now, Prince wants a pardon from the state of Alabama. After putting in an official request, he's expected to go before the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles in two weeks to explain why he deserves it, AL.com reports. This move has angered Cornelius, who said the news "wears" her out.
"It seems to me the very first person he would want to get a pardon from would be me or one of his other 52 victims,'' she says in her Facebook video, which is captioned “A message to my rapist.”
“He has never asked me, my family, or any of his other victims or their families for a pardon. Leon’s ultimate pardon is between him and God. But his earthly request should be between Leon and his survivors,” Cornelius told Oxygen.com over Facebook.
In her video, she told him that he “destroyed” her and her family’s lives.
“You were my youth pastor at Tarrant First Baptist Church when you did that,” she said. “My dad and my mom trusted you.”
"You’ve never once looked me in the eye and acknowledged what you did,” she said, adding that she'd like Prince to directly tell her why he thinks he deserves a pardon.
While she said she forgives Prince, she doesn't want him to be pardoned and is suspicious of his intentions. A pardon would remove his current sex offender status.
"It set off alarm bells for me because there would be one reason he wants a pardon and that’s because he’s trying to something that he cannot do because he is a registered sex offender,'' Cornelius said, according to AL.com.
She vowed in her Facebook Live video to do whatever she needs to do to make sure he doesn't fall under the radar again.
"I'm sick of having to do it," she said.
