A pastor has been booked under the POCSO after a minor girl leveled sexual abuse charges against him. The pastor introduced himself as “a good Samaritan supporting the poor”. He sexually abused the girl when her parents were away at work and filmed her while she was bathing.
Lawrence, a pastor cum advocate, came in touch with the girl’s family a year ago. A TNIE report says that he introduced himself as a “samaritan supporting poor families in education and others”. The girl studies at a corporation school and her father is a construction worker. It appears that the gullible parents readily accepted the pastor’s words and allowed access to their kids. On the pretext of praying, he started visiting their house often and even when the adults were not home.
He started to sexually harass the girl and assaulted her multiple times in September 2022. But the incident came to light only when the mother noticed her upset and abnormal behaviour and inquired about it. A Hindu Tamil report says that the pastor stealthily took photos and videos of the girl when she was bathing and used them to blackmail and threaten her. Following the revelation, her parents filed a complaint against him.
He is absconding and police are on the lookout for him. He has been booked under sections 5 (i) and 6 of the POCSO Act and IPC section 506 (i). There have been 3 such similar incidents in the span of a week. At first scandalous pictures and videos of Benedict Anto, a Syro Malankara priest from Kanyakumari went viral on social media. Later it came to be known that he sexually exploited women including minors. At one point in time, he sexted 3 women from the same family, mother, daughter and daughter-in-law simultaneously.
Even as he was absconding and police were searching for him, a pastor of the Believers Church in Tenkasi was arrested for sexually assaulting women followers. He used footage of the CCTV installed in the church to access videos of women, morphed them, and used it to threaten them into submission. He also filmed a woman while she was bathing and used it to threaten her. He molested a sick woman on the pretext of praying for her recovery.
Emboldened by the kind of power money and position provides them, Christian priests are increasingly becoming sexual predators and it is not only the Christian community but Hindus as well tha face the brunt due to their aggressive proselytisation.
