A pastor and his son have been booked for raping a college girl in Tamil Nadu. The pastor’s son refused to marry her after sexually exploiting her on the promise of marriage. The girl had leveled rape charges against the father and another pastor as well.
Pastor David Jacob runs a Pentecostal church named Zion Prayer House near Panagudi in Tirunelveli. His son Anis Paul(25) made acquaintance with a 22 year old MCA student who attended the church. Anis Paul proposed to her and took her out on many occasions. As per Tamil media reports he also promised to marry her.
On this promise he sexually exploited the girl. But when she started asking him to marry her Paul stopped talking with her. He asked her to stay away from him for 2 years as their relationship would bring bad repute to his family and the church. Anis reportedly slandered the girl’s name among his relatives and friends. He told his paternal uncle Gnanamani and cousin Prince about the girl. The family started threatening the victim to stay away from Anis.
Prince called the victim on the phone and talked in obscene language. Audios of the man indulging in verbal sexual abuse went viral on social media. Following the victim’s complaint police have booked Jacob, his son, brother and nephew. All of them are absconding and yet to be arrested.
The lifestyle of Pentecostal and Protestant pastors has become extravagant with a lot of foreign funds flowing in. It appears that girls fall for pastors and their sons on seeing such luxurious lifestyles and in the belief that as men of the cloth they’ll keep their promise. As such, incidents of girls being sexually abused and exploited by pastors have become frequent.
A trainee Christian priest was arrested in August 2022 for sexually exploiting a college girl on the promise of marriage and later threatening to burn her when she pressurised to marry.
Last year a woman had accused a Pentecostal pastor of trying to marry another after sexually exploiting her. They were betrothed and the pastor had sexual relationship with the woman as even the marriage date was fixed. But the pastor’s family started demanding a dowry of 50 sovereigns of jewelry, car, home appliances, etc. As she couldn’t afford it they found another bride and tried to betroth her to the pastor.
Another pastor brought his fiancé to his house on the pretext of praying for her and raped her. He also took money and jewellery from her but later refused to marry her. The victim came to know later that he had duped many women in the same manner using his ‘pious pastor’ image.
In 2019, a Hindu woman Abirami filed a complaint against pastor Stanley Denny Roberts for sexually exploiting her on the promise of marriage. They were supposedly in a relationship for 2 years and Abirami conceived a child as a result of the physical relationship between them in the meantime. However, Roberts asked Abirami to abort the child saying they’d have children after marriage. But his parents secretly arranged for his marriage with another girl. When Abirami came to know of this and went to Roberts’ parents to seek justice she was threatened of dire consequences.
Similarly in 2016, a Christian widow was sexually exploited by a pastor on the promise of marriage and threatened with murder when she asked him to marry her. In 2013, one Justin Joseph was arrested for abusing a woman named Mary. Mary was a nurse visiting Justin’s house to take care of his aunt. Justin who was a pastor sexually exploited Mary by promising marriage. These are only some examples of such behaviour available on MSM, that too in Tamil Nadu alone.
There have been many such instances of pastors duping Hindu women as well promising marriage, provided they convert. It is an undeniable fact that marriage is indeed a costly affair with the need for a certain amount of jewellery in possession to find a respectable groom. Women are also duped in the name of love and left in the lurch after sexual exploitation.
It’s a well known fact that it’s the canon law that the church follows, based on which such issues are solved within the congregation. Church higher-ups usually convince the flock to bury such issues to ‘protect’ the Church reputation and the law of the land is ignored.
