SEOUL: A prominent church pastor whose behaviour came under scrutiny when the #MeToo movement took hold in South Korea was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison for “habitually” raping female followers who said they were deceived into believing he was God.
Lee Jae-rock, 75, the founder of Manmin Central Church in Seoul, has been dogged by allegations of extortion, fraud and sexual abuse for decades, and mainstream Christian groups have accused him of leading a cult. But it was not until the #MeToo movement caught on in South Korea early this year that Lee was arrested.
Encouraged by the movement, eight former female followers sued Lee. Some of them told reporters he had lured them to his apartment, ordered them to get naked “as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden” and raped them. Lee was formally arrested in May.
In its ruling on Thursday, a three-judge panel at the Seoul Central District Court convicted Lee of raping the eight women dozens of times between 2000 and 2014.
“While attending his church from an early age, the victims were led to believe that the way to heaven lay in treating the accused like God and obeying him,” the presiding judge, Chung Moon-sung, said in the ruling. “He habitually raped and sexually violated them, abusing their inability to protest or resist his acts because of his absolute authority.”
The court said the pastor had victimized others besides the eight women who had come forward. Former members of the church have also said so.
Lee, who has denied all charges against him, stood in silence, while the judge read the verdict. His followers, who packed the courtroom and spilled outside, let out a collective sigh when the sentence was announced, but Lee himself showed little emotion.
Lee’s church and his lawyers painted the eight women as disgruntled former members who “spread lies riding the bandwagon of the #MeToo movement” after being excommunicated for breaching church rules.
Lee was ordained in the 1980s by Jesus Korea Holiness Church, which soon expelled him for espousing mysticism. He began his own church, which claims 130,000 followers and has held large evangelical gatherings in Russia, Pakistan, Israel, Kenya and Honduras.