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Serial child rapist and former pastor Mack Charles Andrews Jr., 61, was released early from prison Friday, after serving only five and a half years of a 15-year sentence.
Shay Walker, one of Andrews' victims in her childhood, had been preparing herself, along with some of his other victims, to testify at his upcoming parole hearing in November in an effort to make sure he stayed off the streets. However, neither Walker nor Andrews' other numerous victims will get that chance.
"He's going to do it again," said Shay Walker. "It's not like he touched someone one time. He's a serial rapist." Walker said she was abused by Andrews when she was between the ages of 7 and 12.
"These years he's been in prison, we've been able to heal our relationships and work through our trauma," she said. "It took a long time to get there."
Neither the prosecutor nor the victims were notified prior to Andrews' release, according to reporting by AL.com.
The prosecutor, District Attorney Spencer Walker (no relation to Shay Walker), said he learned of Andrews' release from another victim, and that the rapist had received time off his sentence for good behavior.
"This is another good example of why we need real truth-in-sentencing reform in Alabama," Spencer Walker said. "You ought to be able [to tell] a victim someone is going to serve x number of years and that's not the way it is. It's frustrating."
"People deserve to know they have a serial child rapist living among them," Shay Walker said after finding out about Andrews' release.
"You don't understand how evil he is," she said. "He is the epitome of what to protect your children from....He called me from a cell phone in prison five months ago and threatened to kill me. I called the prison and alerted his caseworker. They still let him out."
Andrews had apparently submitted a handwritten request for reconsideration of his sentence back in January 2020, citing his "uncontrollable (sic) diabetes" and saying he "should have had medical attention" before being asked to sign his initial plea agreement where he pleaded guilty in 2015.
Andrews, a former pastor of the United Pentecostal Church in Thomasville, Alabama, was arrested on Oct. 3, 2013, on multiple counts of rape, sexual abuse, attempted rape, sodomy and sexual torture.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison by Circuit Judge C. Robert Montgomery on November 16, 2015, and was given credit for the 783 days, or just over two years, he had already spent in the Clarke County Jail prior to sentencing.
Shay Walker said Andrews was planning to move to Texas and start another church with his son.
Newsweek has reached out to members of the Clarke County Sheriff's Office for comment and will update this story with any response.
