MUNCIE, Ind.–A former pastor and school nurse has been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison for molesting children.
Brian Couch received a sentence of 105 years in prison on Wednesday, according to the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office.
During Wednesday’s hearing, one of Couch’s victims testified. She said the sexual molestation began when she was 6 years old and happened repeatedly.
“Other kids are put to bed and told that monsters don’t exist, but the victim here was forced to live with hers. Brian Couch is the proverbial monster under the bed. The victims are serving a life sentence, he deserves one too,” said Delaware County Deputy Prosecutor Jagen Arnold.
Last year, Couch was charged with three molesting counts. Investigators say he fondled three girls when they visited his home between 2012 and 2016.
Couch was a pastor for several years at the Yorktown Church of the Nazarene. Until his arrest, he was also a school nurse at Yorktown Elementary and Middle schools.
Prosecutors asked for Couch to receive 150 years in prison. He received a 105-year prison sentence.
Couch took a plea agreement, pleading guilty to three felony counts of child molesting, receiving a 35-year sentence in the Indiana Department of Correction for each.
“As the prosecutor, I take tremendous comfort in the fact that Brian Couch will spend the rest of his life in prison and that the only way he will leave prison will be in a pine box,” Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman said in a statement. “He will no longer have the ability to hurt another child.”
