There was widespread shock and disgust over the weekend, as news broke of the arrest of a 27-year-old Common Ground Church pastor.

The scope of his alleged crimes is truly horrendous, with at least 50 teenage boys duped into sending explicit photographs of themselves to the Rondebosch pastor.

The church youth leader would pose as “a scantily clad woman”, and when the boys sent explicit images he would threaten to make their photos public unless they sent further images.

It gets worse – Times LIVE below:

In addition to boys aged 12 to 17 from some of the church’s nine congregations‚ the man’s alleged victims included pupils at a number of leading Cape Town boys’ schools. He presented himself as a sports photographer and a church youth worker…

[Senior pastor Ryan] TerMorshuizen said the man was investigated two years ago when he sent a WhatsApp message to a teenager who had injured his genital area‚ requesting a photo.

“We immediately had him assessed by two therapists – one of whom we have on retainer – and we also asked for a report from an external forensic clinical psychologist‚” said the senior pastor. All had given the youth leader a clean bill of health.

The suspect, whose name we know, appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Friday. He was charged with possession of child pornography and failing to report knowledge of the commission of a sexual offence with children.

He was released on R1 000 bail.

According to IOL, he is a massive hypocrite:

Congregants this weekend recalled that the 27-year-old Common Ground Church pastor had often angrily railed against sleaze in talks with the teenagers in his youth group at the Rondebosch church…

In a 2016 post on his Facebook page, the pastor said: “Porn doesn’t really show what sex is, it shows what selfish pleasure is. Porn shows conflicting messages about consent. Today’s porn sells the idea that your pleasure is more important than anyone else’s pain or abuse. It teaches viewers to minimise the sexual trauma of others because in porn, ‘no’ eventually turns into ‘yes.’ It’s time we wake up to the toxic ideas that porn promotes.”

The father of a 16-year-old who had belonged to the suspect’s youth group said: “He used to often have a go at my son saying, ‘Tell me, are you using porn? Do you use porn on social media? Tell me if you are doing that.’”

The case was postponed for further investigation until October 17.

The suspect is a University of Cape Town Master’s graduate in environmental and geographical science living in Rondebosch. A little more on the pastor’s alleged modus operandi:

Police said the suspect’s modus operandi allegedly involved hacking into his teenage congregants’ social media accounts and, using the identity of a teenage girl, coaxing boys between the ages of 14 and 17 to share naked photos of themselves.

When the boys wanted to stop sharing photos the suspect’s girl alias would threaten them with online exposure.

“Most of the boys would then go to the suspect, as a man of the cloth, to seek advice on how to handle the person bullying them online,” said police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo.

“He would then advise them to continue sharing photos which constitutes, on his part, failing to report knowledge of the commission of a sexual offence with children.”

Pastor TerMorshuizen said the church decided to open up about the charges so that they wouldn’t be accused of a cover up, saying they were assisting fully with investigations and had brought charges against the youth pastor themselves.

The Hawks, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the SAPS are all involved in the investigation.

[sources:timeslive&iol&iol]