Mexican megachurch leader gets more than 16 years for abuse

[Judi Lynn]

BRIAN MELLEY,
Associated Press
June 8, 2022
Updated: June 8, 2022 10:40 p.m.



LOS ANGELES (AP) — The leader of the Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was sentenced Wednesday to more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young female followers who said he made them his sex slaves.

. . .

Prosecutors said García, who is considered the “apostle” of Jesus Christ by his 5 million worldwide followers, used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused.

. . .

The sentence came after nearly three hours of emotional statements by five young women García was charged with sexually abusing. They had once been his most devoted servants. But in court they called him “evil” and a “monster,” “disgusting human waste” and the “antichrist.”

García’s grandfather founded the Guadalajara-based fundamentalist Christian church in 1926. García took over as “apostle” after his father, Samuel Joaquín Flores, died in 2014. Flores was also the subject of child sex abuse allegations in 1997, but authorities in Mexico never filed criminal charges.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/article/Mexican-megachurch-leader-faces-more-than-16-17227682.php

[brewens]

1. Nother one a them Evanpedical Christains! :) n/t

[mucifer]

2. I wonder why only 16 years

[Judi Lynn]

3. 'You betrayed us': Mexican megachurch leader given nearly 17 years in US prison for child sex abuse

JUNE 09, 2022
PUBLISHED AT 1:28 AM

LOS ANGELES — The head of a Mexico-based evangelical megachurch that claims about five million followers worldwide was sentenced on Wednesday (June 8) in a Los Angeles courtroom to 16 years and eight months in prison for sexually abusing three girls.

Naason Joaquin Garcia, leader and self-styled apostle of the Guadalajara-based church La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World), pleaded guilty last Friday to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and performing a lewd act on a child.

Garcia, 53, entered his plea three days before he had been due to stand trial on 23 felony counts of sex crimes against children, including multiple charges of rape, conspiracy to engage in human trafficking and child pornography.

. . .

Several of his accusers, each identified in court only as Jane Doe and who are now young adults, decried the plea agreement as too lenient, saying they were not consulted in the deal that Garcia reached with the California attorney general's office.

More:
https://www.asiaone.com/world/you-betrayed-us-mexican-megachurch-leader-given-nearly-17-years-us-prison-child-sex-abuse