Pastor of Toronto Korean Church Denies Sex Assault Allegations

By Amy Dempsey
Toronto Star
January 19, 2012

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1117898

Pastor Jae-Kap Song was indeed alone in a room with a naked female church member on Valentine’s Day two years ago, an Orangeville court heard in his testimony Wednesday. But, he testified, it was not the woman he stands accused of sexually assaulting, and he did not invite the “shocking” incident.

Song, 57, a grocer and spiritual leader with the Toronto-based Jesus First Church, fervently denied that he is guilty of any kind of sexual assault.

The pastor said he did not tell his 30-year-old accuser she was being pursued by “evil spirits” that would turn her into a hunchback, as she had testified. Nor did he prescribe treatment for a skin condition or ask her to take off her clothes for an examination.

At no time were they alone together in his bedroom as she alleged, the pastor said. And he did not — on Feb. 14, 2010 or any other day — touch the woman sexually, with or without her consent.

“It did not happen in the past,” he said through an interpreter. “It will never happen in the future.”

Song said he went to sleep before midnight Feb. 13 — in his own bedroom, alone — and woke up the next morning to find the 30-year-old woman and another female church member arguing.

The second woman, who Song said “wasn’t herself” and appeared to be on drugs, then began to take off her clothes in his presence. The 30-year-old complainant was not in the room at the time.

Song said the woman mistook him for the complainant’s husband, who she claimed had sexually assaulted her earlier that day. “She said ‘I will do what you say,’ and she took her clothes off,” he said.

Song said he told the woman to put her clothes back on and left the room “in shock.” The complainant disputed his story in previous testimony, saying Song brought the naked woman to her door and made the woman apologize to her.

A central point in the defence’s case is that the complainant only brought her allegations against Song to police after her husband was charged with sex offences.

In March 2010, the complainant’s husband and eight other church members were slapped with 485 charges, including gang rape. The charges were laid after Song distributed a questionnaire to church members, inquiring about sexual assaults within the congregation.

Last October, the Crown dropped all charges against the nine members after a lengthy pretrial, saying there was “no reasonable prospect of conviction.”

Song’s trial continues in Orangeville on Thursday with closing submissions.