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A gospel singer who infiltrated London’s Pentecostal church community to sexually abuse children was found guilty last week.
Jason Hoyte, 37, now faces jail after nearly two decades of sexual abuse of young girls. The talented musician, who ran summer school drama and music workshops, was branded a "sexual predator" who began abusing children while just a teenager himself.
Hoyte, from Bromley, south London, was part of the gospel group The Brothers, and also performed as a backing singer to Leona Lewis and James Brown. He was director of an events company called Accapella Records and he arranged holiday drama and music activities for youngsters.
He attended four black-majority churches in London, and carried out his abuse over a period of nearly two decades. Six victims came forward to say that he abused them between 1987 to 2006, but detectives believe there could be yet more. One cop called Hoyte, “every parent's nightmare.”
A jury at the Inner London Crown Court found him guilty of 14 counts of indecent assault, one count of penetrative sex with a child, and one count of sexual activity without penetration.
As the verdicts were read out relatives of victims in the public gallery burst into cheers shouting "righteousness" and "justice", and applauded the jurors as they filed from court.
Police were first alerted to Hoyte’s behaviour a decade ago after an incident with a nine-year-old victim, but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence.
He then moved to another place of worship, becoming a prominent member assisting the senior pastor. He was later expelled after suspicions arose, but the churchman told the court that the authorities were not notified at the time because there was “no firm evidence.”
Prosecuting counsel Nicholas Atkinson QC told the court that the solution for the churches “appeared to have been to avoid contact with the defendant or ban him from their homes. But he simply moved on to others and continued to get away with it.”
Even when a number of churches became "concerned" about his behaviour and barred him, he continued to seek out young girls, and in 2004 went on to join Lambeth Council as a youth worker.
Hoyte, who is married with two children, allegedly confessed to the wife of a former minister at a London church that he had been abused as a child between the ages of three and seven.
One victim, now aged 24, was between four and six years old when Hoyte molested her by laying her on a bed and rubbing himself against her on “many occasions.” Another victim, who was ten at the time, described a pattern of similar behaviour.
He was, however, cleared of a charge of rubbing himself against a girl while she was in bed during an Easter retreat in the Midlands, and of six other charges.
One of his victims previously challenged Hoyte to appear on the Jeremy Kyle TV show and take a lie detector test, but programme researchers told her the allegations were too serious to air.
Hoyte will be sentenced in December.
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