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Disgraced Pastor Says He's "Grieved"

By Jane Sims
London Free Press
March 10, 2012

http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/03/09/19483706.html

Royden Wood leaves the London courthouse Friday after his sexual assault case was adjourned for a decision to April 27. (MIKE HENSEN. The London Free Press)

Disgraced pastor Royden Wood stood up Friday in the courtroom to speak and the women who were once part of his cult-like flock watched him warily.

"I've spent my life trying to be a help to those around me," he said to Superior Court Justice Dougald McDermid, especially "the disadvantaged.

"I've been greatly grieved by those who have been injured by these proceedings."

It wasn't clear to whom he was referring. His wife and son sat in the front row behind the prisoner's box at the sentencing hearing for the former Ambassador church pastor.

The women who had once looked to Wood for spiritual guidance were seated farther back, some taking notes.

Wood, 62, now of Gravenhurst, was found guilty in November of three sexual assault charges involving female congregants at the controversial disbanded church that ran a closed shop at the corner of London's Adelaide and King streets until 2007.

He wasn't sentenced Friday but the hearing did shed more light into the confusing world of Wood and the Ambassador Church.

"He used everything that I confided in him to confuse, abuse, humiliate, control and manipulate me," said one of the women, 47, her identity protected by court order, while reading her victim impact statement.

"Mr. Wood's methods of grooming, deceiving and manipulating his followers have been deliberate and methodical," the other woman, also 47, said.

Wood sat quietly while the women gave their statements.

Unlike the boisterous, outspoken preacher who defended himself on other charges four years ago, he is now subdued by medication and psychiatric counselling for epilepsy and bi-polar and mood disorders.

It's those issues, his defence lawyer Alison Craig said, that make Wood a different kind of offender and "an exceptional case" that needs to maintain his treatment to be a healthy member of the community.

She argued for a two-years-less-a-day house arrest or in a jail with specific mental health programs.

Craig presented a thick stack of letters of support and told the judge they "paint a picture of a man who is clearly loved and valued by the community."

Wood worked as a police officer and a minister and continues to pick up jobs in his new hometown.

Wood has been stigmatized and will never live in London or lead a church again, Craig said.

One of the several medical reports indicated that age and continued treatment would likely diminish any risk Wood is to the community.

Assistant Crown attorney Peter Rollings asked for a six-year prison term, noting Wood hasn't shown any remorse or even admits to doing anything wrong with the women.

Rollings pointed to a pre-sentence report and to a medical report where Wood told a psychiatrist that there was only some snapping of bras in church with three different women "who would in turn give him and three other men wedgies."

Wood told the psychiatrist that he didn't see that activity as sexual but was "inappropriate." He didn't admit to the ongoing sexual acts he had with the women.

The doctors wrote the assaults took place when Wood was in a manic phase and couldn't control his behaviour, but Rollings pointed out that Wood had been able to manipulate situations in the past to cover up his illness, such as when he was able to renew a pilot's licence.

Rollings said Wood was in a position of "power, trust and authority" and the assaults had deep effects.

In their statements to the court, the women described some of them.

"I have been left with no self-esteem, a terrible self-image and my relationships in my life in shambles," said one of the women who had thought of Wood as a father-figure in her life.

"I was left isolated and afraid, confused to the point of having very little confidence in myself or my abilities and worth as a woman, wife and mother."

The woman said her marriage has broken down because of what happened with Wood.

"He betrayed a trust that should have been sacred. He abused the power he had as a leader and a supposed man of God."

The other woman who read a victim impact statement is happily married, but Wood's abuses have taken a toll on both her and her husband.

She said she is "wounded and damaged, but also wiser and stronger."

Wood is to be sentenced April 27.

 

 

 

 

 




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