A prominent Pentecostal preacher who spent decades ministering to children is now facing the most serious of accusations.
Joe Campbell has been arrested on child sex abuse charges, according to the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office. Prosecutors say Campbell is charged with first-degree rape and lewd or indecent acts involving a child under the age of sixteen.
If convicted, Campbell could face life in prison.
The arrest follows a months-long NBC News investigation that uncovered a pattern of alleged abuse stretching back decades—and repeated failures by church leaders, law enforcement, and prosecutors to intervene.
Five women told NBC News they were sexually abused by Campbell as children in the nineteen-seventies and eighties, while he served as an Assemblies of God minister. Nine others, including four men, say he exposed them to pornography, made lewd comments, or touched them inappropriately.
Campbell ministered to thousands of children across four states over more than fifty years.
The case is now in the hands of the Oklahoma Attorney General.