Church minister, 72, 'spanked naked women to cast evil spirits out of them'‏

By SOPHIE MOGRIDGE FOR MAILONLINE

A church minister used the Bible to justify spanking vulnerable women on their ‘bare bottoms’ to satisfy his own sexual desires, Croydon Crown Court heard today. 

Howard Curtis, 72, a former senior minister of the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship, south London, allegedly ran a ‘cult’ where grown women were persuaded to strip naked so he could spank them over his knee for his own pleasure. 

Married Curtis and his ‘inner circle’ reportedly used ‘unorthodox’ teachings in an attempt to instill discipline and drive out evil spirits in both women and children who had come to him for help. 

His abuse of their trust continued as he moved ‘from one woman to another’ and his confidence grew.

Curtis, who left his role as a senior minister at the independent Baptist church in June 2012, is facing 12 charges involving seven victims. 

Curtis is charged with five counts of cruelty to children under the age of 16, two counts of indecent assault, four of sexual assault and one of assault by penetration.

The offences are said to have occurred between January 1969 and July 2013.  

Jane Osborne, prosecuting, said: ‘Howard Curtis was the pastor of a religious body, or organisation, called the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship, and had been in that position for some time.

‘The church had a small congregation that followed him.

‘In more recent years he had become more independent of any religious body, and the church was effectively run by him. 

‘In reality he ran this organisation much more like a cult within a church.

Ms Osborne continued: ‘The background to this case focusses around this defendant, the church he was involved in and the people who attended that church over the years. 

‘This case is in very broad terms about the abuse by this defendant of the trust placed in him by vulnerable people who attended his church.

‘It is also about the abuse of women and children – in the case of the women, abuse that was for his own pleasure.

‘What you are going to hear is how a number of grown women, already vulnerable when they came to his church from domestic and sexual abuse, financial desperation and depression, came to the defendant for help.

‘But when they did so they were taken advantage of by him. When each of those women sought his help, he offered it to them.

‘He suggested he would be able to counsel them and they believed he was an experienced and seasoned counsellor.

‘What in fact took place was an abuse of the trust they had placed in him.

‘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.’

Jurors heard Curtis would also smack children in his congregation excessively, ‘but not in a way to warn or chastise them.’

Ms Osborne said: ‘He would put them over his knee and hit them hard until they cried and, in some cases, marks appeared, in what the Crown would say amounted to cruelty.

‘His teachings were unorthodox: there would be Bible studies led by him and he would interpret the wording of the studies to suit his own purposes.

‘He would conduct something known as “deliverance ministry”, said to be casting out evil spirits from a person, and he would tell people that discipline needed to be administered to people, in particular to women.

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

‘It was from those teachings that he used to subject those women who had come forward for help to his abuse.

‘The defendant effectively moved from one person to the other, taking advantage of them for his own pleasure.

‘His confidence and level of abuse grew as he discovered these women were unlikely to complain about what he did.’

Curtis told the court he had a ‘vision, a message from God’ that he would establish a church with 1,000 members in Cane Hill psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon. 

Hard-of-hearing Curtis, wore a dark suit and grey tie and was aided by a pair of headphones, while he was supported by his wife who sat in the public gallery.

He denies all charges.   

SUBMITTED BY JEFFREY DAUGHERTY (www.jeffreydaugherty.com) THE CHRISTIAN WHISTLEBLOWER