Spanking pastor Howard Curtis, 73, of Bloxworth Close, Wallington, facing jail after being found guilty of sexual assault at Coulsdon Christian Fellowship

Daniel O'Mahony
Sutton Guardian

March 29, 2016

Howard Curtis

An evangelical pastor who led his church as "cult" is facing jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting female parishioners.

Howard Curtis, 73, former senior minister at Coulsdon Christian Fellowship (CCF), spanked “completely naked” women in his congregation as part of a doctrine known as "Christian Domestic Discipline".

During a trial at Croydon Crown Court, Curtis claimed the assaults - which included “hitting or tapping his victims in the genitals” - formed part of a mental health treatment inspired by a “spiritual” interpretation of the Bible.

On Thursday a jury unanimously found Mr Curtis guilty of seven counts of sexually assaulting a female and one count of child cruelty during his time at the CCF between the early 1980s and July 2013.

Curtis, now of Bloxworth Close, Wallington, was cleared of five further counts of assaulting a child as well as one count of assaulting a female over 13 by penetration.

During the four-week trial the jury heard evidence from a former CCF parishioner who said Curtis had physically restrained women during private "counselling sessions" intended to deliver his worshippers from "evil spirits".

The witness recounted an occasion when Curtis whispered "I could turn you on" while giving her a neck massage. She also described how the pastor had spanked the bottom of a three-year old boy after shouting the child was a "defiant spirit looking at him".

Another former church member told the jury that family members had urged her to leave CCF, in Chipstead Valley Road.

But she said: “When you’re in a cult you don’t realise you’re in a cult until years after you’ve left and you look back and think, ‘Why didn’t I leave years ago?’ Cross-examining Curtis, prosecutor Toby Fitzgerald said there was “no other Christian doctrine [that] requires or allows the pastor of a church to smack the bare bottoms of adult female members of its congregation”.

Curtis agreed, but cited an interpretation of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians in the New Testament as justification for the doctrine.

He added: “Just because you and other people don’t think it’s right doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to believe it. Otherwise it’s against freedom of religion."

The pastor promoted the doctrine in his later years at the church. But he admitted that his wife had not agreed to it as part of their own marriage.

Asked about a parishioner he was said to have forced to submit to spanking, the former pastor said: “She wanted to experience to see if it helped her with her depression – which it actually did. The woman feels very relaxed and very free.

"It reduces the tension – I don’t really understand why but that’s what happens."

Curtis will be sentenced at Croydon Crown Court on April 22.

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/suttonnews/14389566.Spanking_pastor_facing_jail_after_being_found_guilty_of_sexual_assault/

Pastor 'didn't see any harm' in spanking to rid woman of depression, court hears

Tom Matthews
Croydon Advertiser
March 23, 2016

Howard Curtis denies all the charges against him

A PASTOR accused of sexually assaulting women in his congregation said he "didn't see any harm" in spanking one of them in an attempt to rid her of depression, a court has heard.

Howard Curtis, who ran Coulsdon Christian Fellowship for decades, claims the smacking of the three women was consensual and denies sexual assault.

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It is alleged that Curtis claimed the sessions, described as "deliverance" counselling had to be done "flesh to flesh" on the bare bottom in order to cast out evil spirits.

With one of the women, it is claimed he also spanked her between her legs to "cure her frigid spirit", and also performed a sex act on her with his finger.

Curtis further denies non-sexual allegations of child cruelty against three youngsters and a charge of assaulting a teenage girl.

The prosecution claim he ran the church "more like a cult", brainwashing his followers and manipulating "vulnerable" women into submitting to spanking sessions for his sexual pleasure, which he claimed were for deliverance from evil spirits.

Curtis' defence maintain the deliverance was "not sexual". Last week, he told jurors that one of the women had asked him to spank her, and he thought it might help with her depression.

He said: "She wondered if it could help with her depression. I thought it could.

"It depends if you see depression as an illness or an evil spirit. If you smack somebody it could free an evil spirit."

Curtis cited the example of Smith Wigglesworth, a Pentecostal "faith healer", who claimed to be able to cure cancer by punching sufferers.

After four weeks of evidence, the jury retired to consider its verdict on Tuesday.

Prosecutor Toby Fitzgerald, in his closing speech to jurors, claimed Curtis had turned his attentions to the women in part because his wife had refused to submit to Christian Domestic Discipline, a small religious movement which advocates a wife's submission to her husband, involving non-sexual spanking

"So whatever desires the defendant held, to satisfy his wish to dominate and satisfy his wish to spank he wasn't getting any change from [his wife] and that, the Crown say, he set to spanking others."

Mr Fitzgerald explained Curtis had helped one of the women out, finding her a job as well as paying for her bills.

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"Those things would be great if they didn't come with the flip side" he said.

"Once he had drawn her in with apparent kindness and significant generosity ... once he's done that, made her trust him and rely on him, things took a turn for the worse."

Julia Flanagan, defending, said her client was not a "charlatan or a megalomaniac", but just a busy pastor trying to do his job.

"He has his church called a cult because he helped men and women in need, both practically and spiritually," she said.

She asked the jurors to put aside their own feelings on religion.

"The purpose of deliverance isn't sexual and is a part of a charismatic Pentecostal church. It may be hard to get your head around.

"Deliverance, for example, ... is actually a widely held belief and there's nothing wrong with it.

"Context is so important. What about the use of extreme force on a very young child? Is that permissible on a very young child? Actually yes, because what about circumcision of an eight-day-old baby which is a tenet of Judaism."

"If you want to engage in Christian Domestic Discipline you have the right to do that."

She said there was "no evidence" that Curtis had used subliminal control patterns to "brainwash" his congregation and said the women who had made complaints against him "bore grudges".

Altogether, Curtis denies seven counts of sexual assault, one count of assault by digital penetration and two counts of indecent assault, against three women between 1991 and 2013.

He also denies four counts of child cruelty against three different youngsters, and a charge of causing actual bodily harm to one of the women woman, all between January 1969 and February 2008.

The trial continues.

http://m.croydonadvertiser.co.uk/Howard-Curtis-Coulsdon-Christian-Fellowship/story-28976860-detail/story.html

Evangelical pastor 'spanked women in his congregation'

TONY PALMER
Evening Standard
February 24, 2016

Accused: self-styled Reverend Howard Curtis denies the allegations

The spankings were to satisfy self-styled Reverend Howard Curtis’s “desire for power and sexual satisfaction,” Croydon crown court heard.

Former pastor Curtis, 73, from Wallington in south London, ran the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship as a cult, prosecutor Toby Fitzgerald said.

The father of three ordered one woman, a student nurse, to strip naked before putting her over his knee to slap her. He continued the beating when she collapsed to the floor. One of the dozen sessions took place in front of her husband.

He introduced the woman to his version of “Christian domestic discipline”, following Bible teachings of keeping women in their place. Her “offences” included untidiness and “lacking femininity”, the jury was told. Mr Fitzgerald said: “She trusted him completely as a man of God.” 

Curtis has pleaded not guilty to two sample counts of sexually assaulting the woman between January 1, 2009 and July 15, 2013 and one count of assault. 

He has pleaded not guilty to further allegations of sexual assault against a second woman, and of indecent assault against a third. He denies all the charges against him.

The trial, which is expected to last four weeks, continues.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/evangelical-pastor-spanked-women-in-his-congregation-a3187986.html

Married church minister 'ran bottom spanking cult'

The Telagraph
September 18, 2015

A church minister used the Bible to justify spanking vulnerable women on their bare bottoms to satisfy his own sexual desires, a court heard today

Howard Curtis, 72, 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" used "unorthodox" teachings to instill discipline and drive out evil spirits in both women and children who had come to him for help, it is said.

His abuse of their trust continued as he moved "from one woman to another" and his confidence grew, Croydon Crown Court heard.

File photo: Howard Curtis arrives at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon, South London in 2014

File photo: Howard Curtis arrives at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon, South London in 2014 Photo: National Pictures

Curtis, who left his role as a senior minister at the independent Baptist church in June 2013, is faces 12 charges involving seven victims.

• Satanic cult claims dismissed by High Court judge

The former leader of the church, a role he left in May 2012, is charged with five counts of cruelty to children under 16 years of age, two counts of indecent assault, and four of sexual assault.

Additionally he faces one count of assault by penetration, while the offences are said to have occurred between January 1969 and July 2013.

"He would put them over his knee and hit them hard until they cried and, in some cases, marks appeared."

Jane Osborne, prosecuting

Jane Osborne, prosecuting, said: "Howard Curtis was the pastor of a religious body, or organisation, called the Coulson 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 was the church was effectively run by him.

"It was run and administered on a full-time basis by the defendant, his wife Marilyn, as well as his inner circle - part of a close-knit structure.

"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.

File photo: Reverend Howard Curtis, at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon in 2014

File photo: Reverend Howard Curtis, at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon in 2014 Photo: National Pictures

"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.

"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", Ms Osborne continued.

"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.

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

Jane Osborne, prosecuting

"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."

• 'How I got sucked into a cult’

The court was told Curtis also had a "vision, a message from God" that he would establish a church with 1,000 members in Cane Hill psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon, south London.

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

Curtis, of Wallington, south London, denies all charges.

The trial continues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11875172/Married-church-minister-ran-bottom-spanking-cult.html