Martial Arts Instructor Who Molested Girls Gets 161 Years in Prison

A martial arts instructor who molested three girls during private lessons at his Lake Elsinore home was sentenced Monday to 161 years in prison.

A Murrieta jury last month convicted 65-year-old Albert George Williams of nine counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old, two counts of digital penetration of a child under 10 and one count of witness intimidation. Jurors also found true sentence-enhancing allegations that Williams targeted multiple victims in a sex crime.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Angel Bermudez imposed the sentence required by law.

Williams was arrested in early November 2012 after a 10-year-old girl told her mother that the assailant had groped her several times during a karate lesson in the garage attached to his home in the 15600 block of Laguna Avenue.

According to a trial brief filed by Deputy District Attorney Julie Baldwin, the child also told authorities that the defendant had inserted his fingers into her privates after getting her into his bedroom on the pretext of helping him with his computer.

Following Williams' arrest, deputies circulated a public notice about the case, asking any other alleged victims to come forward. Two girls did -- both alleging that Williams had molested them during one-on-one karate lessons, typically groping them while they were stretching or as he was having them demonstrate a particular move learned in class.

All the children lived in the defendant's neighborhood, Baldwin said. Due to their ages and the nature of the alleged crimes, all the victims were identified as Jane Does in the criminal complaint.

According to Baldwin, Williams used fear to keep the victims' from talking, suggesting that they would be beaten by gang members or worse.

One girl told detectives that "she was fearful of defendant because he would tell her and the other children stories about getting the letter 'S' carved into their faces for snitching," according to the brief.

Just before his arrest, Williams also tried to frighten the father of a child during a conversation in which the defendant said his son was a gang member who had just been released from prison after serving time for killing several people.

"(Williams) said that if anyone ever hurt him or any of his family members, his son would have his back," according to the brief.

Most of the sexual assaults occurred in 2011 and 2012, according to court papers.

Williams has a prior sex-related conviction in Los Angeles County, according to prosecutors.

— City News Service.