Spanks Be to God

The Sun
September 19, 2015

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/6647599/Pastor-accused-of-smacking-naked-victims-to-cast-out-evil.html


A CHURCH minister ordered women to strip naked and spanked them to “cast out evil spirits”, a court heard yesterday.

Howard Curtis, 72, is accused of targeting vulnerable women who came to him for counselling over depression and domestic abuse.

But a jury was told that instead of helping them, he forced them to take part in bizarre rituals for his own sexual gratification.

Prosecutor Jane Osborne said: “He would conduct something known as deliverance ministry — said to be casting out evil spirits.

“This would be done by striking flesh with a bare hand.

“He would spank them over their bare bottoms, getting them to strip naked during the counselling under the guise of helping them get over their former abuse.”

Curtis — the former head of an independent Baptist church — was said to have run the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship in South London like a cult.

Miss Osborne told Croydon crown court that his victims were “already vulnerable from domestic and sexual abuse, financial desperation and depression”.

She added: “He suggested he would be able to counsel them and they believed he was an experienced counsellor.

“What in fact took place was an abuse of trust.”

Married Curtis, who left the fellowship in 2012, is accused of assaulting seven women dating back to 1969. His wife Marilyn was in court to support him.

Miss Osborne added: “His confidence and level of abuse grew as he discovered these women were unlikely to complain about what he did.”

He is also said to have “excessively” smacked children in his congregation, hitting them so hard they cried and “marks were left”.

Curtis, of Wallington, South London, faces seven charges of sex offences between 1969 and 2013.

He also faces five counts of cruelty to children under 16. He denies all charges. Trial continues.