Carl Lentz Accused Of Sexually Abusing Hillsong Staff, Pastor Denies Allegations

A former Hillsong NYC staff member on Monday accused pastor Carl Lentz of sexually abusing her.

The former Hillsong pastor allegedly bullied and sexually abused Leona Kimes, who had worked as a nanny for his family for seven years, on multiple occasions.

“During the years I spent serving them, I was subjected to manipulation, control, bullying, abuse of power, and sexual abuse. Having told almost no one before this, I am just now able to share what I experienced in their home as the result of intense therapy,” Kimes, 37, wrote on Medium.

In her statement, Kimes, now a co-pastor of Hillsong Boston, said Lentz’s sexual abuse initially began with unnecessary comments and flirty teasing.

“Gurl, you’re looking good. You’ve been in the gym?” Lentz reportedly told her.

However, the abuse escalated, with the former pastor allegedly teasing his children’s nanny about getting a “boob job.” He also allegedly engaged in unwanted touching.

“Summer of 2015 is when things moved far beyond just flirty compliments and suggestive teasing. I was giving a foot rub to his wife, and he asked me to give him one too. He had never asked me this, and I didn’t feel like I could say 'no.' After that, he would ask me to rub his feet when he would come home or rub his tired muscles after playing basketball,” Kimes wrote.

“Then the physical encounters escalated. While he never had intercourse with me and never kissed me, I was physically violated by his unwanted and repeated sexual touching of my intimate areas. I froze. Every time, I froze,” she added.

A legal representative for the pastor has denied the accusation, saying the events “did not happen as they are being described,” according to Religion News Service.

“[The Lentzes] vehemently deny the allegations and, in addition to that, have irrefutable proof the events did not happen as they are being described.”

Lentz, 42, had faced several allegations in recent years and was fired from Hillsong Church in November for “moral failings.” Following his exit from the megachurch, Ranin Karim, a Brooklyn jewelry designer, appeared on "Good Morning America" where she discussed her five-month affair with the former pastor.

“I told him, ‘I know who you are and I’m not here to judge you, but I have a question,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Is something wrong with your marriage that you’re sitting here with me?’ He said, ‘No.’ He’s like, ‘It’s you.’”

"I never wanted a married man. I went on other dates to try to forget him and he said he had counseling to break the spell of me and be cured but it didn't work,” she added.

Carl Lentz is married to Laura Lentz, whom he married in 2003 and shares three children with.