CHURCH LEADER GETS 16 YEARS FOR ABUSE

The leader of the Mexican megachurch La Luz del Mundo was sentenced Wednesday to more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young female followers who said he made them his sex slaves.

Naason Joaquin Garcia, 53, abruptly pleaded guilty last week in Los Angeles Superior Court to three felonies on the eve of a longawaited trial.

Prosecutors said Garcia, who is considered the “apostle” of Jesus Christ by his 5 million worldwide followers, used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused.

“I never cease to be amazed at what people do in the name of religion and how many lives are ruined in the guise of a supreme being,” said Judge Ronald Coen, who called Garcia a sexual predator.

The sentence came after nearly three hours of emotional statements by five young women Garcia was charged with sexually abusing. They had once been his most devoted servants. But in court they called him “evil” and a “monster,” “disgusting human waste” and the “anti-Christ.”

“I worshipped my abuser,” said a woman identified as Jane Doe 4 and who said she was his niece. “He used me over and over again like a sacrificial lamb taken to slaughter.”

Garcia, dressed in orange jail scrubs and wearing a surgical mask pulled under his glasses, didn’t turn to face the women. He sat upright and looked straight ahead with his hands shackled at his waist as he followed along with the proceedings listening through ear phones to a Spanish interpreter.

Garcia pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15. In exchange, prosecutors dropped 16 counts that included allegations of raping children and women, as well as human trafficking to produce child pornography.