21 years for pastor who abused girls at ‘exorcisms’

A CHURCH pastor who sexually assaulted women and girls while pretending to rid their bodies of ‘demons’ was jailed for 21 years yesterday.

John Wilson, 70, was condemned by a judge as a charlatan who conducted the abuse ‘ when behind a mask and beneath a cloak of Godliness’.

For around 25 years he carried out ‘deliverances’ or ‘internal ministries’ on at least six women – including vulnerable teenage girls – on the pretext of trying to help them.

Wilson and his wife Mary, 79, who helped by holding down two of his victims, were described as ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’ by Judge David Hatton, QC.

The couple claimed to be good Christians devoted to their community, but they used the Pentecostal church Wilson founded in Keighley, West Yorkshire, as a vehicle for his perversion, Bradford Crown Court heard. Police suspect Wilson drugged his victims’ tea before the prayer sessions as some recalled blacking out.

He had denied sexual assault, indecent assault and conspiracy to commit indecent assault.

Passing sentence, Judge Hatton said Wilson had ‘effectively brainwashed’ his victims into believing they were possessed and could help by ‘ extracting’ them. ‘ It was a screen of deceit,’ the judge said.

His wife Mary told one young victim she was ‘riddled with demons’ and held her down as she was assaulted. She held a pillow over the face of another victim. The judge gave her a 22-month suspended jail term after considering her severe health problems, age and the public shame she must endure.

Assistant pastor Laurence Peterson, ‘Charlatan’: John Wilson 59, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit indecent assault, will be sentenced next month.

The abuse began in the mid-1980s and two teenage sisters who came to Wilson as orphans were among the first to suffer at his hands.

One of them was ‘emotionally fragile’ and endured abuse for nine years, believing he had power to free her of demons.

Now aged 45, she told the court she was always given tea before prayer sessions and would feel ‘zombiefied’. She suffered years of chronic depression as a result and ‘lived continually with the abuse’, said prosecutor David McGonigal.

Wilson should have been stopped years before he was eventually reported to police in 2014. His first church was part of the larger Assemblies of God and one victim complained about him to its officials. He was excommunicated by the church in 1993 but later set up another church and carried on as before.

The court heard one victim, who was admitted to a psychiatric hospital and had attempted suicide, has already received a £425,000 payout from the Assemblies of God after taking legal action. Other cases are likely to follow.