Authorities were looking for a Statesville NC pastor Thursday who was charged this week with sexually assaulting minors.

The Iredell County Sheriff's Office has three warrants pending against Carl Edward Nixon, 64, charging him with taking indecent liberties with minors, said Detective Sgt. Bill Hamby.

Nixon told congregants at Believers Faith Center on Sunday that he needed to step down for a while because of allegations against him in Wilkes County, Hamby said.

That county has a warrant charging him with assault on a female, Hamby said, in connection with a recently reported incident involving an 18-year-old.

Two women in Nixon's Iredell County church, now 29 and 24, then came forward with their stories, Hamby said.

They told the Iredell County Sheriff's Office that he made inappropriate contact with them more than 10 years ago, the detective sergeant said, when they were 11 and 14 years old.

Nixon's church, on Brookview Road just north of Statesville, also runs a Christian Academy that teaches preschool through 12th grade.

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