A center helps young people aging out of foster care get back on their feet.
However, the pastor who runs the center has been detained and turned over to prosecutors스포츠토토.
He’s accused of committing so-called “grooming” sex crimes against four teenagers, and testimony has emerged that there are more victims who didn’t come forward.
Reporter Won Dong-hee reports.
[Report]
Pastor Ahn Mo founded the Children’s Center in 2019.
The center was funded by donations, and nearly 200 young people have passed through its doors.
The young people, who had no idea where to go, called Mr. Ahn their father and followed him.
[Mr. A/Victim: “I was able to call him (my father) with my own words, so it was just overwhelming…”]
Although he was happy to have a family, Mr. Ahn’s verbal abuse soon began.
[Pastor Ahn: “I wanted to have (sex) with OO.”]
Sexual contact also became routine.
[Ms. B/Victim: “He would walk by and hit me on the buttocks and put his leg between our legs and press…”]
Although she found it strange, she said it was hard to resist Mr. Ahn, who she looked up to as a father figure.
It became a state of psychological domination, or “grooming.
[Ms. B/Victim: “The adults who take care of us talk to us like that, so we don’t say anything…”]
Once he realized they were unable to resist, Mr. Ahn’s sexual assault escalated.
[Ms. A/Victim: “When I woke up, my body was already naked and the crime had already been committed…”]
After receiving the complaint, the police launched an investigation and identified four victims.
However, they told KBS that there were more hidden victims.
[Rev. Ahn: “You have to take it off. You have to take it off.”]
About 10 women attended Ahn’s nightly drinking parties, and they said they witnessed some of them being sexually assaulted.
[Ms. A/Victim: “He drank with me and left me and her sister (additional victim) alone… to watch him do (sexual assault).”]
The fact that the hidden victims are still unable to come forward may be due to the special environment of the children’s center.
[Ms. A/Victim: “You can’t escape. There was so much gaslighting.”]
[Ms. B/Victim: “I wish I could be brave and not suffer…”]
Ahn was handed over to prosecutors today (Sept. 19) on suspicion of quasi-rape and indecent assault.
I’m Won Dong-hee of KBS News.