The most trusted people in town quietly let a convicted sex offender move around a preschool for years, and now four of them stand charged with putting children in harm’s way.
Story Snapshot
- Convicted sex offender Warren Perry volunteered for years on a South Carolina church campus that ran a preschool and school.
- Sheriff’s investigators say the pastor, his wife, and school leaders knew his record and still let him near children.
- All four now face charges like obstruction of justice and unlawfully placing a child at risk after a parent’s complaint sparked a probe.
- The case exposes a bigger pattern: churches protecting image and insiders instead of protecting kids.
How a sex offender ended up inside a church preschool
Georgetown County deputies say the story started long before the public ever heard the name Warren Spence Perry. Perry, 70, was convicted in 2023 of sexual exploitation of a minor for a crime he committed in 2020. As part of his sentence, a judge gave him a ten-year term, suspended, with five years of probation that came with clear rules: no contact with children and no time in places made for kids. Yet for several years, Perry moved around Pawleys Island Community Church, where an elementary school, preschool and nursery operate on the same campus.
Probation officials say Perry did tell them he was volunteering at the church, but he never told them the church also ran a school and daycare on site. That key detail matters. It meant the people charged with watching him did not know he was spending time in a space built for children. Investigators now allege he worked at the preschool, entered classrooms while school was in session, and had full access to school grounds, all while under supervision and barred from such contact.
From quiet concern to full-blown criminal investigation
The case blew open only after a parent finally picked up the phone. The Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office says it received a call from a concerned parent on July 13, reporting that a registered sex offender was being allowed around children at the church’s school. Deputies then contacted the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, which quickly launched its own review. The next morning, probation agents interviewed Perry, decided he had lied about his contact with minors, and arrested him for violating probation.
That arrest pulled a thread that kept unraveling. Georgetown County Sheriff Carter Weaver says, based on sworn statements and search warrants, investigators came to believe this was not a simple oversight. In his words, former pastor Don Williams, his wife Ginny Williams, academy director Nikki Howard, and Perry “colluded to knowingly and willfully” place children in harm’s way. Those are strong words from a sheriff in a county where church leaders usually sit at the front of community events, not at the defense table.
What church leaders are now accused of doing
Court records and local reports show four adults now face serious charges tied to what happened at Pawleys Island Community Church. Don Williams and Nikki Howard are charged with obstruction of justice, unlawfully placing a child at risk, and criminal conspiracy. Ginny Williams and Perry face obstruction of justice and conspiracy counts. A judge set bond at twenty-five thousand dollars per charge for each defendant, and ordered all four to return for mandatory court dates in the fall. Perry’s bond was denied entirely, reflecting how seriously the court views his alleged probation violations.
Prosecutors and civil lawyers argue these leaders did more than make a bad judgment call. A proposed class-action lawsuit claims the church negligently hired or kept a known sex offender, failed to properly screen him, failed to notify parents, allowed him access to children, breached duties owed to families, and caused emotional distress to parents and kids. The suit seeks more than twenty-five million dollars in actual and punitive damages. Those numbers matter less than the core charge: they put the institution’s image and loyalty to a volunteer ahead of children’s safety.
What the church says in its defense
Church leaders do not deny they knew Perry was a sex offender. A teacher has said she found his name on the South Carolina sex offender registry after seeing him around her classroom and later learned leadership already knew; at a church meeting, Pastor Don Williams confirmed that his conviction was known to him, several leaders, staff, and school leadership. Their argument instead leans on intent. They say that when Perry went on probation in 2023, they set “strict supervision” rules so he would never be alone with children.
Williams has said there is “absolutely no evidence” any child at the academy was abused by Perry. He and other leaders claim they believed Perry was following his probation rules and that they even informed county officials about his volunteer work. They admit they did not tell teachers or parents about his background, saying they thought only those in direct oversight roles needed to know and now call that a “wrong call.” From a conservative, common sense view, that defense is weak. When adults know a man is convicted of exploiting a child, hiding that from parents and teachers is not cautious leadership; it is reckless secrecy.
A local scandal that fits a national pattern
This South Carolina case is not a random, isolated mess. Investigations across many denominations have found a pattern when churches deal with sexual abuse: keep things “in house,” use soft language instead of plain words, shield the institution from bad headlines, and move or manage the offender instead of removing him from access to kids. Research on church abuse shows offenders often use their role in the organization to gain access and trust, then slowly stretch boundaries when leaders fail to enforce hard lines.
Community leaders charged after sex offender found working at Pawleys Island church school https://t.co/0DyGrt3yKQ
— Live5News (@Live5News) July 21, 2026
Reports have even described a “playbook” in some church systems: avoid real investigations, rely on friendly insiders, hide details in private files, and keep parents in the dark. That pattern lines up too neatly with a case where leaders knew a man was on the sex offender registry and still let him move around a preschool campus. Most child molesters are described as religious and often target church members because trust and silence make their work easier. When church leaders choose dignity for the offender and the institution over blunt transparency, they do not follow Christian duty. They break it.
Sources:
nypost.com, wpde.com, wfxb.com, wbtw.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, abcnews4.com