Mother of man arrested for rape of child charged with coercion of witness

Story by Shannon Taylor Senior Investigative Reporter

On Jan. 9 Investigator Kerry Workman with the Weakley County Sheriff’s Department was informed of female child sexual assault allegations made against 34-year-old Andrew Daniel Webster of Palmersville.

During the investigation it was disclosed by an 8-year-old female juvenile that Webster raped the child, took explicit photos and allowed the child to view pornography.

During the investigation the 8-year-old female juvenile disclosed that Webster made unwanted sexual contact with her.  The juvenile confirmed that all incidents occurred in Palmersville.

Webster has been arrested and booked at Weakley County Jail. He has been charged with rape of a child, sexual exploitation of a minor and aggravated sexual battery.

Webster has previous charges over the past years including driving on a suspended license, possession of paraphernalia, simple exchange, failure to appear, driving while license revoked, carry weapon domestic violence order of protection, reckless endangerment deadly weapon involved, aggravated assault, assault bodily injury x2, assault attempt and theft dating back to 2008.

On Feb 15, Workman received a copy of a video of the victim recanting her allegations against Webster. The video was dated Jan. 28 along with being recorded at the residence of the victim. The residence is of Courtney Hurst and the video was recorded by 60-year-old Teresa Webster, Websters mother.

During the video it appears that the victim had been coerced into stating that the allegations against Webster are not true and as the video is playing you can hear Webster’s mother stating that her, Hurst, a juvenile male and the victim were having a discussion about the case and the upcoming court date.

The video was recorded after the agreement from Hurst and Webster’s mother that no further discussion of the case was in the best interest of the children.

On Feb. 23 due to the incident, Hurst and Webster’s mother are being charged with coercion of a witness on two counts due to influencing the male juvenile and female victim to withhold any truthful testimony.

Officers have not yet located Hurst to pick her up for the charges.

DISCLOSER: Information obtained came from the Weakley County Sheriff’s Department affidavit provided by Investigator Kerry Workman.