A man charged with making 17 secret recordings of men at a public restroom at Colonial Williamsburg on Aug. 2 was an ordained deacon at a well-known Gloucester County church.

George Thomas West, 76 — who police believe has been recording men at public restrooms  in the region going back three decades — was a deacon at Union Baptist Church on Guinea Road in Hayes.

He’s been removed from his leadership role — and from the church’s membership — by an Aug. vote of the church body, Senior Pastor Jared Berry said.

“We are greatly grieved by all of this and praying for all of those involved and hurt in this tragedy,” Berry said in a statement. “May God do good even out of darkness.”

Meanwhile, tourists at Colonial Williamsburg this week reacted with shock and concern that someone had apparently been surreptitiously recording at restrooms in the area for so many years.

“It’s a gross exploitation of people’s privacy,” said Doug Latour, 65, who was visiting from Ohio.

West is charged with 17 counts of using his cell phone to illegally film other men on Aug. 2 at  a restroom near the intersection of Duke of Gloucester and South Henry streets during the Farmers Market that Saturday.

The videos typically captured men’s genitalia, and often captured their faces as well, court documents said. All of the counts are misdemeanors, each punishable by up to a year behind bars.

West’s arrest came after another man using the restroom on Aug. 2 realized he was recording a third man, with the witness snatching the phone from West.

He tried to delete the videos in front of a police officer, but police found two graphic videos in the phone’s camera roll, and 15 more in the recently deleted items, court documents said.

A city spokeswoman said that the investigation in the following weeks revealed that West filmed “thousands of men” at area restrooms going back to 1996.

George Thomas West, of Gloucester County, is accused of filming 17 people without their consent at a restroom in the Colonial Williamsburg area. (Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail)

Pastor Berry first told Union Baptist Church about West’s arrest at its Aug. 10 service, telling church members he had “a difficult announcement for you.”

“This incident has revealed a sin issue that has been ongoing and hidden for a very long time,” Berry said. “Due to the public and serious nature of this sin, I believe it is both necessary and biblical that I address it with you now.”

He said he wasn’t handling the case as a disciplinary issue as discussed in the Book of Matthew, in which one or two church members approach a wayward member to get them in line.

Because of the “extreme nature of the sin,” Berry said, West must leave the church, as called for in Corinthians.

“This is necessary for him to feel the full brokenness and gravity of this sin if there is any hope of a truly genuine repentance and redemption,” Berry said.

A church that ignores sin “becomes both powerless and meaningless in preaching truth to the world,” Berry said. “We are called to expose the unfruitful deeds of darkness and not to help hide them.”

The pastor grew emotional as he talked about what had occurred. “I trusted and valued Tom in the many things that he did here, many good things,” Berry said.

Berry asked for prayers for the victims and West’s family. He also asked for prayers for West’s repentance, asking God “to work on his heart and that you would give him back to us one day, whether it’s here or in glory.”

Outside the restroom at Colonial Williamsburg this week, several tourists lamented that it occurred at a tourist attraction known widely as a wholesome place.

“It’s really bad,” said Latour, the Ohio resident. “Especially in a place like this where people are bringing their families for vacations, where they expect to have a good family time or just a good, wholesome experience studying history in such a beautiful area.”

“And then you get some guy that does something like that — I’m trying to keep my language clean.”

Star Copeland, a Newport News mother of two boys, 13 and 7, expressed dismay when she learned of the charges after the boys used the restroom Tuesday. “That seems like a very long time for it to go on and not to be noticed,” she said of the assertion of filming going back to 1996. “But thank God he was caught.”

Ellen Morgan Peltz, a Colonial Williamsburg spokeswoman, said CW is fully cooperating in the police investigation and “continually evaluating our security measures and enhancing them for the benefit of the public.”

No changes to CW’s restrooms have so far been announced.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

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