Former Pastor Accused of Sexual Abuse and Child Trafficking in Romania

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A former Riverside megachurch pastor has been accused of sexually abusing and trafficking children for years at a shelter he ran in Bucharest, according to lawsuits filed by two Romanian men in U.S. District Court in California.The complaints, filed Tuesday by 33-year-old Marian Barbu and 40-year-old Mihai-Constantin Petcu, said the former Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor and missionary Paul Havsgaard severely abused them and dozens of other children at the shelter over eight years. The lawsuits also name the church’s founder and senior pastor, Greg Laurie, a well-known evangelist and author, as well as other senior church leaders, saying they failed to prevent abuse.The lawsuits accuse Havsgaard of luring struggling street kids with fast food and the promise of shelter and education. Jef McAllister, a London-based lawyer representing Barbu and Petcu, stated that the men are “hurt, angry and still suffering from PTSD and social difficulties.”The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Barbu and Petcu have done.The church provided no contact for Havsgaard, and the Associated Press was unable to reach him through emails and phone numbers found via online searches. Harvest Christian Fellowship said in a statement that the allegations in the lawsuit were shocking but that Havsgaard should be the target, not the church or its famed founding pastor.“This misplaced lawsuit wrongly targets Harvest Riverside and our pastor as a form of financial extortion,” the statement said. “It does not seek the truth nor does it seek to stop the purported wrongdoer.”The complaints allege negligence on the church’s part, accusing Laurie and other senior church leaders of failing to supervise Havsgaard despite repeated red flags and reports from donors, visitors, and others that they suspected sexual abuse and saw poor living conditions at the shelter.The lawsuit alleges that Laurie not only kept Havsgaard in Romania with minimal oversight, but that the church also deposited $17,000 each month to Havsgaard’s personal bank account. The lawsuit states that Havsgaard returned to California, bringing some of the children he was accused of abusing to raise money for Harvest under the guise of rehabilitating street children in Romania.The church contested the allegations, asserting that most content in the lawsuits about the church is “absolutely and entirely false; some of it is plainly slanderous.”The church claimed to have funded Havsgaard’s initiative for a limited time as they support numerous missionaries worldwide. They also mentioned that they reported the allegations to law enforcement but stated that the plaintiffs and their lawyer refused to cooperate with U.S. authorities.Barbu described life at the shelter as “a torture chamber inside a prison,” stating that Havsgaard regularly intruded on the boys during showers and would stare or masturbate in their presence. Both plaintiffs accused Havsgaard of “pimping out” older boys for sex work via video chat or bathhouses.The complaints detail instances of sexual assault, inappropriate touching, and other forms of abuse, stating that children were made to kneel on walnut shells or were bound to their beds. According to the lawsuit, while abusing the children, Havsgaard claimed, “I know what God wants; what I want, God wants.”Lawyer McAllister indicated that in the weeks to come, he expects to file lawsuits involving at least 20 others alleging abuse at the shelter. Many of these individuals continue to struggle with poverty and trauma and are seeking justice.“They’ve had a hard slog,” McAllister remarked. “They would really like to get some sense that they’ve been heard and that the injustices they’ve suffered are recognized.”