December 1997
Kirk perv jailed for sex abuse
An ex-minister has been jailed for sexually abusing two little girls.
Pervert Kenneth Walker resigned from the Kirk after being put on probation for previous assault charges involving children.
This time the former minister of Aberlour Church on Speyside was jailed for three years for crimes against two sisters aged eight and three.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard that the dad of four crept into the bedroom of the older girl dressed only in his underpants and touched her private parts.
He did the same numerous times to the younger sister over a period of two years.
After a trial last month a jury found him guilty of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices
May 1996
Cruel Rev belted his girl till she bled; Children lived under minister’s reign of terror
A crazed Church of Scotland minister thrashed his little daughter’s feet with a belt until they bled.
The deranged preacher regularly belted three of his four children in the manse, a court heard yesterday.
The Rev Kenneth Walker’s five-year-old daughter Hannah told police: “He belts us because we are naughty.”
She held up three fingers to show she had been hit three times by her dad.
And she said: “Once my foot was bleeding because the belt hit me.”
She then pointed to the buckle of a belt to show where it had hit her.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard how Hannah, Jamie, six, and Ruth, eight, regularly suffered at Walker’s hands.
Jamie told police: “I am worried because dad belts us a lot, a real lot.” Walker, 37, of Aberlour, Speyside, admitted amended charges of striking the three children on the legs and feet with his belt.
The shamed reverend hasn’t seen his wife, Ann, and their children since January, when the offences came to light.
He has been having psychiatric help for the last 18 months since the birth of his fourth child, Andrew, a Down’s Syndrome baby.
The Aberlour and Craigallachie Minister has also been suspended.
Sheriff Noel McPartlan said he had to consider jailing Walker.
He deferred sentence for social inquiry, community service and psychiatric reports.
