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	Witness Testifies about Sex with Accused Deacon By Jane Sims CNews October 21, 2011 http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2011/10/21/18857721.html She said she called him Dad and he treated her like his daughter. And for the woman who had been both sexually and physically abused by her stepfather as a child, Royden Wood's attention and comfort brought her some peace. That was until Wood, the disgraced pastor of the now-closed Ambassador Baptist Church, changed the rules of their relationship while offering bizarre marriage counselling that involved sex. "It felt like my stepfather all over again," the 47-year old woman told the jury at Wood's sexual assault trial. Wood, 62, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault involving five women who were members of the deeply religious London, Ont., church that one of them has described as almost a cult. The trial has opened the door on a closed community that isolated itself from the rest of the world, and under the leadership and spell of the charismatic Wood. The woman who testified Thursday has known Wood since she was a teenager when she came to live with the Wood family after leaving a group home. She met her husband - now estranged - through Wood and was an original member of the church in 1982, keeping up a close relationship with Wood while raising a growing family so large she could track events for assistant Crown attorney Peter Rollings by matching them to her children's birthdates. Wood was her guide through life and she went to him for direction. But it wasn't until 1990, she said, that Wood and his wife approached her about addressing them as Dad and Mom. "They wanted to give me a family," she said. She and her husband were deeply involved in the church. The childhood abuse had left her with trust issues so Wood undertook a program to get past her anxiety around men by holding her and hugging her. She said she started to experience back problems and Wood applied techniques he had learned from various readings to help her align her spine. Those sessions eventually led Wood to convincing the woman to remove her top for massage and to allow him to massage "poison pockets" out of her breasts when she was nursing. None of the contact was sexual, she said, even the massages in her genital area when she was pregnant. The relationship changed in 2000 when Wood asked the woman during a visit while she was ill if she was looking after her husband's sexual needs, then molested her under her nightgown. She was embarrassed but knew she couldn't say no to Wood, fearing public admonishment. Wood decided the woman needed to learn to enjoy sex more and started a provocative education program that included a variety of instructions. He told her if was for the benefit of her marriage, to trust him and not tell. The weird tutorship led to Wood telling her in 2003 that she now needed to help him with his marriage because he had a low sex drive. Once he asked her to show him how to "fool around" in a car, and said, "I guess it's not a father/daughter relationship anymore." The activities escalated to Wood producing condoms and having sex with her both at his house and hers. "I closed my mind and did what he wanted," she said, even when she was sickened by it. Wood told her she would lose her marriage, her kids and her friends should she disclose the sex. She recalled Wood grabbing her by the hair, pushing her against a door and telling her she "had no say." Because of other conflicts with Wood, the family left the church in September 2003. She told her husband about the encounters a month later. When her husband confronted Wood, the pastor became agitated and blamed her. The family has launched a civil law suit against Wood that's on hold until the criminal matters end, she said. The trial continues Friday. Contact: jane.sims@sunmedia.ca
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