Coulsdon Church Minister "Ran Cult to Brainwash Women into Bare Bottom Spankings As the Will of God"
By Tom Matthews
THE minister of a Coulsdon church ran a cult to brainwash women in his congregation into accepting bare bottom spankings as 'God's will' to satisfy his sexual desires, a court has heard. Howard Curtis, a married 73-year-old father of three, is said to have treated Coulsdon Christian Fellowship (CCF), of which he was the leader for decades, "more like his personal cult than a church". He denies at least seven sex attacks on three different women said to have taken place between 1991 and 2013. Curtis, who became a minister of the Elim Pentecostal movement in the 1980s, but broke from the church when he was pastor of the CCF in Chipstead Valley Road, further denies child cruelty charges relating to three different youngsters, and a charge of causing actual bodily harm by spanking a babysitter. 'Deliverance ministry' Opening the case against Curtis at Croydon Crown Court on Tuesday, Toby Fitzgerald, prosecuting, said the minister had interpreted the wording of the bible "to suit his own desires". "He would conduct what he would refer to as a deliverance ministry," said Mr Fitzgerald. "This would involve the defendant saying that he was going to cast out evil spirits from a person. "He would tell his congregation that discipline needed to be administered and this was best done by spanking bare flesh with the bare hand.
"The defendant used this concept of discipline to hide what were, in fact, exercises in cruelty and also sexual assault." He is alleged to have urged his followers to adhere to a doctrine known as Christian Domestic Discipline. "The concept was, according to the defendant, based on biblical interpretation that within a marriage, women were the weaker sex," said Mr Fitzgerald. "They were easily deceived and therefore needed to be kept in order and disciplined." During one of his "counselling sessions", Curtis is alleged to have asked a woman to strip naked before spanking her between her legs. Mr Fitzgerald said Curtis told the woman "this is what your husband should be doing to you" as he performed sex acts on the woman with his fingers. 'Brainwashed' On another occasion, helped by his "brainwashed" followers, he is said to have pinned the mother of a seriously ill girl to a bed before whispering in her ear, while brandishing a bible, that it was "all her fault" that her daughter might die. Curtis said they should "pray for [the girl] to die" so that the devil could be released from her, the court heard. The first of the alleged attacks was in the late 1960s or early 1970s when Curtis, who then lived in Aurelia Road in Thornton Heath, spanked a teenage babysitter until she was "black and blue" for wearing miniskirts. "He would often comment on them, saying that in his opinion they were too short and they could lead people to think untoward thoughts," said Mr Fitzgerald. "He said she had disobeyed him for too long and that she needed to be punished for disobedience.
"He put her over his knee, pulled down her knickers and smacked her bare bottom with his slipper." Years later, when the same woman was a member of the church congregation, Curtis is said to have offered to soothe her crying baby son, but instead spanked or pinched him in a "cruel assault". During one counselling session with the woman Curtis said that if he were married to her "he could bring her to climax at any time", the court heard. The prosecution argue that many of his victims did not report what happened to the authorities until many years later because they had been "effectively brainwashed … into believing him to be truly a man of God, whose words and actions were not to be challenged". 'Like a drug addiction' One woman described "weaning" herself off the church because Mr Curtis "would always be able to lure her back", Mr Fitzgerald said. "She described it a little like a drug addiction. Having to decrease amount of exposure until she could be free of it." Mr Fitzgerald said Curtis had chosen "a particularly innovative and distinctive way" of sexually abusing her, after finding out she had been similarly sexually abused by a family member. "He would quite deliberately ... cause her to relive it, doing himself the things that her abuser had done." Mr Fitzgerald explained this included "triggers" like whispering in her ear or stroking of her hand. "He justified these actions by telling her that it was necessary for her to relive the abuse, but this time with a difference - that he, Howard Curtis, an agent of God, was going to bless the situation by becoming involved in what had been a toxic memory."
"He would end up on the floor, on top of her sometimes touching her stomach with his hand, effectively stroking her. She felt she was put into a hypnotic trance "Her reaction would sometimes be to scream, to fight him off, because it took her back. "The defendant would say that this told him that she needed more healing, thus allowing him to further the abuse that he was committing on her during those sessions." Mr Fitzgerald said the woman would be fully clothed during the sessions, but they were so violent her clothes were ripped, while Curtis would get "so hot and sweaty he would remove the top half of his clothing". Another victim, who was seven or eight at the time, said Curtis bent him over his knee before spanking his bare bottom "very hard". "It was an assertion of HC's power and was deliberately designed to humiliate and subjugate," said Mr Fitzgerald. 'Inner circle' One woman, who joined the church in the 1990s and suffered from bouts of depression, said she had eventually been welcomed into the "inner circle" of the organisation before she was told that the "undisciplined spirit" could be released from the body by "spanking the bare bottom". Curtis is alleged to have spanked her bare bottom "forcefully" over the hallway banisters of a house near the church. "He told her that it was very important that she didn't tell him to stop, that he would stop when he felt like it," said Mr Fitzgerald. "The crown say that's an indication of the defendant wanting to take from this situation sexual pleasure." When he was arrested in 2013, Curtis made no comment to police other than a prepared statement which said all contact between him and one of the alleged victims was "entirely consensual" counselling activity. Curtis gradually increased the intrusiveness of his "counselling" with one of his victims over about 10 sessions, the prosecution say. Curtis claimed the spanking, more effective than just talking, would sort her "untidiness", help with her marriage and "improve her femininity", Mr Fitzgerald said. "Was the contact of skin to skin on this woman's bare bottom something consistent with the defendant's sexual fantasies or was it his genuine religious ministry that demanded such behaviour?" he asked the jury. "What those women sought, the crown say, was religious guidance and counselling and what they were met with was this defendant sexually abusing them." 'Vision from God' Curtis had "grandiose" fantasies of fulfilling a command from God to build a self-sufficient community he could rule at Cane Hill, the court was told. Toby Fitzgerald told the jury that Curtis described his plans for Cane Hill, centred around the former chapel at the old asylum, "were in reality never going to come to fruition". "He told people that this vision had come to him from God. God had told him to buy Cane Hill and in return for doing this, he would be rewarded with a congregation of 1,000 people." "He spoke of his ambition of building a self-contained community at Cane Hill. "This fixation was [testament] to the defendant's dominance within Coulsdon Christian Fellowship and dominance over his congregation
"It gives a view to the fact that he had power and he wanted more." Cane Hill was in fact sold to developers Barratt Homes, with a 674-home development being constructed on the site at the moment. Curtis, now of Bloxworth Close, Wallington, stood down from leadership of the church in 2012. He denies four 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 has also pleaded not guilty to four counts of child cruelty and one of ABH, said to have been carried out between January 1969 and February 2008. The trial continues.
|
.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.