AUSTRALIA
9 News
By Liz Little
Jul 23, 2017
The wife of a radical Australian preacher has broken her silence for the first time on the horrific abuse she suffered for years at the hands of her cruel husband.
But Joy Harris, 63, revealed the most devastating aspect of her ordeal was being shunned by her own son – an Independent Baptist pastor like his Dad – because he blamed her for his father’s evil actions.
“I’m totally heartbroken. He hasn’t even let me see his children, because I have to repent first.”
Speaking in a 60 Minutes exclusive, the Cairns grandmother said she had been raped up to seven time a day by her husband, Pastor Larry Harris.
“He thought the more times a day he could have it, the more of a man he was. He would get up to 6, 7 times a day and he didn’t care if it caused me pain,” she told reporter Liam Bartlett.
Pastor Harris pleaded guilty to two counts of rape in Queensland in January, however Joy will seek to have him charged in New South Wales, where the majority of abuse allegedly occurred, when he is released.
Joy told Bartlett any sense of justice will be forever overshadowed because her son Kevin, who leads the Illawarra Community Baptist Church in Dapto, has turned his back on her for speaking out against the church.
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