LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former Riverside megachurch pastor has been accused of sexual abuse and human trafficking children for years at a shelter running in Bucharest, according to a lawsuit filed by two Romanian men in US District Court in California.
The complaints filed Tuesday by 33-year-old Marianne Barb and 40-year-old Mihai Constantine Petchu said former Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor and missionary Paul Havesgaard had violently abused dozens of other children at shelters for over eight years. The lawsuit also cites church founder and senior pastor Greg Laurie, famous evangelist and author and leader of other senior churches.
The lawsuit accuss Hubsgard of seducing struggling street kids with their promises of fast food, shelter and education. “We are a company that represents Barbu and Petcu,” said Jef McAllister, a London-based lawyer.
The Associated Press generally does not nominate people who say they have been sexually abused unless they move forward publicly, as Barb and Petchu did.
The church did not contact Havsgaard, and the Associated Press was unable to contact him via email or phone numbers found in an online search. Harvest Christian Fellowship said in a statement that while the lawsuit allegations are shocking, Havsgaard should be a target, not the church or its well-known founding pastor.
“This misguided lawsuit mistakenly targets Riverside and our pastors that are mistakenly targeting them as a form of financial tor,” the statement said. “It doesn’t seek the truth and doesn’t try to stop the cheating.”
The complaint alleges negligence on the part of the church, accusing Raleigh and other senior church leaders of failing to oversee the Hubsgard despite repeated reports of repeated red flags, alleged sexual abuse from donors, visitors and others, and seeing poor living conditions at shelters.
The lawsuit not only did Lowry maintain Hubsgard in Romania with minimal surveillance, but the church also deposited $17,000 a month into Hubsgard’s private bank account. Havsgaard also returned to California and raised funds for the harvest by citing his job rehabilitating Romanian street children.
The church said it funded the Hubsgard initiative for a “time period” that supports numerous missionaries around the world, but “most of our church lawsuits are absolutely and completely false.
The church said it attempted to cooperate with the plaintiffs and reported their claims to law enforcement, but the man and his lawyer refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities.
Barboo said life in the shelter is like a “torture room in a prison,” and Hubsgards regularly appear in the toilet while boys shower, undress, stare, and masturbate in front of them. Both plaintiffs accused Hubsgard of “pinting” older boys for video chat and bath sex work, reducing their income.
Complaints detail sexual assault, inappropriate emotionality, and abuse, with children being kneeled in walnut shells or tied to beds and radiators. According to the lawsuit, Havsgaard told the children while abusing them:
McAllister said he expects to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks involving at least 20 others who say they were abused at shelters.
“Even though they lived in these homes where they were supposed to be educated, some of them are still illiterate,” he said. “They have a problem with trust. They take care of each other.”
Most of them live in poverty and are looking for financial help and proof, McAllister said.
“They had a hard throw,” he said. “They really want to have the sense that the injustice they’ve heard and that they’ve suffered is being recognized.”
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