According to The Daily Nonpareil in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and KETV Omaha News, a former youth pastor, that told teens that he could help them with homosexual urges by having sexual contact, has been charged with 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation.
Released on a $30,000 bond, Council Bluffs youth pastor, G.G., 31, will be back in court on April 21.
G.G. allegedly told teens, and men, that their acts would gain them “sexual purity in the eyes of God.”
On February 16 G.G. admitted to Council Bluffs detectives that as far back as 2007 he had sexual contact with four men – while he acted as their youth pastor at Victory Fellowship Church.
That number has now risen to eight people that have come forward per Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber.
Church leaders were stunned when the first four came forward, per Reverend Lonnie Parton, with sexual exploitation allegations. After the four reported it to Parton, Parton then went to G.G. and demanded that he confess to the police.
Parton said that Victory Fellowship Church does background checks on “all people who work with the church’s kids.” He said that G.G.’s was clean.
G.G. began working at the church as a volunteer in their youth department in 2006.
G.G. told police that in one instance, with a fourteen-year-old boy, that the sexual contact went on for over four years. In court documents he admitted that the abuse occurred somewhere between “25 and 50 times.”
The boy, now an adult, corrected the number for police: It was between 50 and 100 times.
It is alleged that G.G. said it was his duty, “to help (the teen) with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him.”
More victims have since made statements to detectives.
Three said that while at G.G.’s home, the then-teens were there to be helped with “sexual purity.”
A twenty-three year old victim claims that he sought G.G.’s council as he was having difficulty with his marriage. G.G. offered to “help him with his issues.” When the two met the victim alleged that G.G. pulled down his pants and touched his genitals.
Another man, twenty-years-old at the time of the alleged abuse, claims that G.G. spent five weeks to move from touching the victim through his clothes, to oral sex.
Again, court records show, that G.G. often used the excuse that he was only there to help “victims gain sexual purity.”
He continued in this vein by telling detectives that he felt, “When they would ejaculate, they would be getting rid of the evil thoughts in their mind.”
Now, with a total of eight victims coming forward so far, Wilber is doing further investigations and following all leads to determine if there are any more victims.
If you, or someone you care about, has been the victim of clergy abuse, contact a personal injury lawyer for help today. Victims are most commonly due monetary compensation for their pain and suffering.