Alabama Televangelist Paul Acton Bowen Got 1,008 Years for Sexually Abusing Six Teenage Boys

ETOWAH COUNTY, ALABAMA — Paul Acton Bowen built a televangelism brand on teenage boys, then pleaded guilty to sexually abusing six of them. A judge stacked the counts and gave him 1,008 years.

Bowen, then 39, pleaded in Etowah County to 28 charges — enticing children for sex, sodomy, sexual abuse, traveling to meet children — just as jury selection was about to start. The victims were 13 to 16. Circuit Judge Debra Jones handed down the maximum on every count, consecutive, plus $840,000 in fines, and denied probation. Several Etowah judges had recused. Bowen’s ex-wife is the daughter of District Judge Joe Nabors, who filed for divorce on her behalf after the allegations broke.

Shackled, Bowen apologized in a shaking voice. “The shame and guilt I feel is overwhelming and has been for a long time. My heart was never wanting to hurt anybody but my mind was not well.” One victim called him a wolf in sheep’s skin. Another told the court, “I saw myself as damaged goods without realizing I’d been manipulated by a true professional.”

Jefferson County added another guilty plea: traveling to meet a child, second-degree sodomy, enticing a child, second-degree sexual abuse — 20, 20, 10, and one year, concurrent with Etowah. Florida’s Bay County had separate lewd-battery counts from trips across state lines. Court records list a minimum release date of 2980. The Alabama Supreme Court declined his appeal in July 2021 with no written opinion. He is at Kilby Correctional Facility.

Bowen had preached 12 years locally, ran a Gadsden student Bible study, hosted xlroads TV in more than 170 countries, and billed himself as a 2012 London Olympics chaplain and mentor to public figures. Victims said the abuse ran from 2006 to 2018, on ministry trips in other states and countries. Defense attorney John Floyd said Bowen had been abused as a child and had PTSD. A clinical therapist called the acts horrific and Bowen “a very damaged man who needed a great deal of help and never got it.” District Attorney Jody Willoughby said there was no evidence of that prior abuse beyond Bowen’s own statements after arrest — no DHR reports, no other complainants.

“If anyone is out there who wants to come forward, please let law enforcement know. We will get justice,” Willoughby said.

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