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	Curse Threats Led to Sexual Abuse by Pastor By Sam Pazzano Timmins Daily Press March 27, 2008 http://www.timminspress.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=959505 A pastor who impregnated a woman he terrorized into a sexual relationship by threatening curses was sentenced Wednesday to four years in prison. Justice Edward Belobaba said Rev. Frank Seeko Lawrence "grossly abused his position of trust as her pastor and spiritual healer and threatened her with evil spirits if she didn't acquiesce to his sexual advances. "He intentionally had unprotected sex with her because as he said to her, 'My seed cannot be wasted.' He clearly intended to make her pregnant and warned her that, 'If you're using any birth control, the spirits will know!'" the judge said in sentencing Lawrence for sexual acts ranging from fondling to five to 10 incidents of intercourse from April to November 2003. The woman, now 29, gave birth to Lawrence's daughter in August 2004. The victim filed for support in Family Court and, in September 2005 after receiving a "threatening phone call from Lawrence," she phoned Toronto Police, said Belobaba. Lawrence has two children by his ex-wife and nine children by other women in the community. For several years, Lawrence had treated her as a physically ill teenager with "spiritual baths that were designed to root out the curses and evil spirits that were making her ill," said Belobaba. "In time, she began to feel better and she came to believe Mr. Lawrence actually had spiritual powers." The woman moved into Lawrence's home in 2003 and he "took advantage of her belief in curses and he threatened her with evil spirits. She acceded to his sexual advances because she believed he had this kind of spiritual power," said Belobaba. "I went to Rev. Lawrence seeking help and he was scaring me with evil spirits. I have slept with Satan. I have been to hell," the judge quoted the victim as saying in her emotional testimony. The victim, who said she had been sexually abused by her grandfather when she was living in the Caribbean, trusted and revered Lawrence, "a man of God," said the judge. "For him to terrify her into having sex with him or risk being harmed by evil spirits was for her a horrific and mortifying culmination of what was already too many years of sexual and physical abuse," said Belobaba. Lawrence denied this, saying the sex was consensual and he never abused his position.
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