Brazil Extradites US Sect Leader Accused of Sex Abuse

GlobalPost
June 23, 2016

http://www.globalpost.com/article/6777998/2016/06/22/brazil-extradites-us-sect-leader-accused-sex-abuse

Brazil has extradited a US sect leader accused of 59 felony counts of criminal sexual assault against young girls, allegedly committed "in the name of Christ," prosecutors said Wednesday.

Victor Arden Barnard, 54, fled the United States in 2014 after he was charged with the assaults. He was arrested in February 2015 in the tourist beach town of Pipa in northeastern Brazil.

Brazil gave the go-ahead for his extradition last week, prosecutors said in a statement.

Barnard is the founder of the so-called River Road Fellowship in the northern US state of Minnesota.

The self-proclaimed pastor stands accused of assaulting the daughters of his followers from 2001 to 2009 at a campsite where they were living.

Two of the girls, aged 12 at the time, escaped the camp in 2009, and accused Barnard of repeatedly assaulting them.

Witnesses told investigators that Barnard said he was Jesus Christ's representative on earth and that it was God's will for the girls to have sex with him, according to a Brazilian Supreme Court document.

The US Marshals Service had put Barnard on its list of 15 Most Wanted fugitives, and offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to his arrest, according to a statement on its website.