By Jane Sims
London Free Press
October 22, 2011
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/10/21/18861471.html#/news/london/2011/10/21/pf-18861466.html
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| Royden Wood. (QMI Agency file photo) |
Just eight days after she'd lost her husband in a car accident that left her badly injured, Pastor Royden Wood was telling his faithful Ambassador Church member who he thought she should re-marry in the church.
And while she recovered at the Wood home for two months after her release from hospital, her pastor would approach her when everyone was sleeping and touch her in her private areas of her body, he said, "so I could feel beautiful."
The testimony from the 50-year old mom whose identity is protected by court order at Wood's sexual assault trial demonstrated a predominant side of the former pastor's personality - control.
The woman, the fourth female congregant to tell a jury of sexual encounters with Wood, has a four-year degree from a Bible College and was an active member of the defunct church's community. Her account added more detail to what was going on inside the church controlled by Wood.
The pastor told his flock to follow the Bible and destroy all their text books because "he was a man of God and he had all the answers."
"We were gradually ostracized from the rest of the world," the woman said.
It wasn't long after she and her husband joined the church in 1988 that Wood had become immersed in their lives, offering his advice on child rearing, finances and marriage.
He told her he had chiropractic expertise when she complained about back pain.
Sex seemed to be "an underlying topic" in all their discussions. Wood told her "I needed to become less inhibited and I needed to basically relax."
Around 1995, her back issues intensified, causing headaches. Wood had a plan to help her through chiropractic lifting and manipulation. Often these treatments were given to her in his bedroom at his home.
In 1998, after she had a tubal ligation, Wood's attention seemed to "ramp up" and sex was "always something brought up" in conversations.
The first sexual incident was an unbuttoning of her top. During back treatments, Wood put his hand up her skirt and down her underwear. He touched her breasts and around her genitals. He told her for a man and a woman to be friends "there was a sexual hurdle that needs to be crossed over. It needed to be explored."
Her husband died in November 2000, and she married her second husband in August 2001. Wood, she said, would sometimes show up at her house and touch her "to get you ready for (her husband)."
The woman said she felt "a sense of impropriety and a sense of shame . . . I wish I could say no but I couldn't."
There were three episodes of full-blown sex in 2003 in the backseat of his SUV and in his bedroom.
After the third encounter, Wood called to say he was having "a bad day" and a certain sex act "made him feel better." She obliged him.
When he asked again in October 2003, she said no. Wood stopped all sexual contact.
In cross-examination by defence lawyer Alison Craig, the woman admitted she felt "an aspect" of love toward Wood, "but I wouldn't say I was in love with him."
The trial continues Tuesday.
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