(NY)
Cayman Marl Road [George Town, Grand Cayman]
October 31, 2026
By Renae Stampp
Jamaican televangelist Paul Lewis, who was acquitted of carnal abuse charges in Jamaica in 2009, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison in the United States after being convicted of repeatedly sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl whose family attended his Brooklyn church.
Lewis (63) of East New York, Brooklyn, was sentenced by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Naiburg after a jury found him guilty of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child on September 24, 2026.
The conviction comes 17 years after the once-popular Jamaican pastor walked free from the Savanna-la-Mar courthouse in Westmoreland, having been found not guilty of carnal abuse. He now faces a lengthy prison term in the United States following his conviction for a separate sexual offense involving a minor.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced that Lewis was sentenced to 14 years in prison, followed by 10 years of post-release supervision.
According to prosecutors, Lewis was the pastor of Messengers for Christ World Healing Center in Brooklyn, which also operates branches in Jamaica, Trinidad and Germany.
In 2014, the victim, then 11 years old, and her family were members of his congregation.
Evidence presented during the trial established that between September 3 and December 23, 2014, Lewis repeatedly picked up the child from her home under the pretext of taking her to get food.
Instead, he drove her to the vicinity of a McDonald’s restaurant at 1380 Broadway in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where he sexually assaulted her inside his vehicle on multiple occasions.
Prosecutors said that on another occasion, Lewis took the child to a brownstone in Brooklyn, removed her clothing, and sexually assaulted her.
The abuse remained unreported to authorities for nearly a decade until February 26, 2024, when the victim went to the New York Police Department’s 81st Precinct stationhouse and reported what had happened.
Police subsequently launched an investigation that resulted in Lewis’s arrest and eventual prosecution.
District Attorney Gonzalez condemned the pastor’s actions and said the sentence represented an important measure of justice for the victim.
“Rape results in trauma that lasts a lifetime and we will never stop seeking justice for those who have been sexually violated. With today’s sentence, the defendant has been held accountable for this deplorable crime, affording the victim a measure of closure for the horror inflicted upon her as a child,” Gonzalez said.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jourdan Thompson of the Special Victims Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Linda Weinman, Deputy Chief of the bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Miss Gregory.
Lewis’s conviction and sentencing mark a dramatic downfall for the Jamaican religious leader, who previously escaped conviction on a sexual offense charge in his home country but has now been sentenced to more than a decade behind bars in the United States.