OREGON
The Raw Story
DAVID EDWARDS
14 JAN 2015
An Oregon pastor is set to stand trial 18 years after women first brought allegations of rape and sexual abuse to authorities.
The Oregonian reported on Wednesday that prosecutors had reexamined complaints that Mike Sperou raped seven women as children in the 1990s, and that he would be charged based on new allegations by one of the women.
The women said that Sperou turned Southeast Bible Church, which may have started with good intentions, into a cult that broke down bonds within families. Sperou, who claimed to have emotional scars from childhood and the Vietnam war, engaged in heavy drinking, used drugs, and sexually abused children in the church, the women said.
Sperou admitted to police in 1997 that he encouraged the women, who were all under the age of 12 at the time, to stay with him in his bed at his private residence. While he denied raping the women, he said that he could have put his hands on their underwear or under their shirts. He denied that he had sexually penetrated one girl with his finger while she was sleeping.
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