ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FL – A former Tate High School football coach and Sunday school teacher has been arrested and charged with repeated sexual abuse of several young boys.
Escambia County Sheriff’s deputies report that Charlie Mabern Hamrick, 54, has been charged with 36 counts of capital sexual assault on one victim under the age of 12, lewd and lascivious behavior on victims under the age of 12, and victims from the ages of 12 to 16. He has also been charged with providing obscene material to minors.
Hamrick was a football coach at Tate High School and a Sunday school teacher at Pine Forest United Methodist Church. He has been accused of engaging in sexual acts with the boys on the boat at his beach house in Pensacola and at his home, sometimes with his wife present.
One victim told deputies that Hamrick taught his Sunday school class, and invited the boy to spend time with Hamrick’s children at Hamrick’s home. He alleges that he would exchange oral sex with Hamrick in the living room and den there. The victim says that Hamrick would encourage him to touch his genitals, on at least one occasion under a blanket with Hamrick’s wife in the room. The abuse continued from the time the victim was 8 until he was 11.
The victim says that the abuse happened about once a month from 1997 to 2000. In one of the later incidents, when he and his mother were visiting Hamrick’s beach house in Pensacola, the mother saw Hamrick fondling her so. Hamrick is reported to have been very apologetic, claiming that it only happened that once.
Deputies say that the mother then spoke to a pastor at Hamrick’s church, who promised that Hamrick would not work with children any more. When the victim heard stories of other children who had been sexually abused by Hamrick, he went to the police. That was on March 21, 2017, about 17 years after his alleged abuse took place.
Another victim states that he would go to the Hamrick home for fishing and riding on a four-wheeler. He claims that while behind Hamrick on the four-wheeler, Hamrick would tell the boy to hold on to Hamrick’s penis, claiming that it was the safest way to ride. Other victims corroborate this story.
Another alleged incident happened at Tate High School. Hamrick showed a group of boys an educational video about puberty, and followed that video with other movies showing explicit sexual acts between men and women, and men masturbating.
Hamrick has been charged with capital felonies, and if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison.
Source: News 5 WKRG