South Korean pastor jailed for raping followers

lee-jaerock Eight women laid criminal complaints, and the court found Lee raped and molested them "tens of times" over a long period

A South Korean pastor was jailed for 15 years for raping his eight female followers.

Judge Chung Moon-sung told the Seoul Central District Court that the victims believed Pastor Lee Jaerock was god and that this made them "unable to resist as they were subject to the accused's absolute religious authority".

Lee set up the Manmin Central Church in Guro, once a poor area of Seoul, with just 12 followers in 1982. It has now grown to 1,30,000 members, with a spotlight-filled auditorium, sprawling headquarters, and a website replete with claims of miracle cures.

But three of Lee's followers went public earlier this year, as South Korea was swept with a wave of #MeToo accusations, saying he had summoned each of them to an apartment and forced them to have sex.

"I was unable to turn him down," one of them told South Korean television.

"He was more than a king. He was God," added the woman, who had been a church member since childhood.

Lee told another that she was now in Heaven, and to strip as Adam and Eve went naked in the Garden of Eden. "I cried as I hated to do it," she told JTBC television.

Eight women laid criminal complaints, and the court found Lee raped and molested them "tens of times" over a long period.

"Through his sermons the accused has indirectly or directly suggested he is the holy spirit, deifying himself," the judge said.

The victims believed him to be "a divine being who wields divine power", he added.

Lee, who denied the charges, stood with his eyes closed as the judgement was read, showing no emotion, while around 100 followers filled the courtroom to overflowing, some of them sighing quietly.

The 75-year-old's lawyers had accused the women of lying to seek vengeance after being excommunicated for breaching church rules.

Religious devotion is widespread in technologically advanced South Korea, with 44 per cent of people identifying themselves as believers.

Most belong to mainstream churches, which can accumulate wealth and influence with tens of thousands of followers donating as much as 10 per cent of their income.

But fringe groups are also widespread—experts say around 60 people in the country claim to be divine—and some have been implicated in fraud, brainwashing, coercion, and other behaviour associated with cults worldwide.