A Houston area pastor is accused of repeatedly raping a family member over the course of several years, impregnating her, and dropping the baby off at a fire station.
According to KPRC 2, Robert L. Carter, who is listed on the Black Preaching Network as the Senior Pastor at Missouri City’s The Sanctuary Church of Jesus Christ, allegedly began sexually assaulting a then 7-year-old family member in 2008. The girl informed police, according to KHOU, that initially Carter would bribe her with candy.
According to court documents, he also threatened her with a form of blackmail as he allegedly told the child, “No one will believe you, and if you do tell, I’ll tell them that you came to me and did this.”
In addition, when the child refused to acquiesce to Carter’s demands, he threatened her. Court documents allege that Carter told her on one occasion, “If you don’t do this, I promise you’re going to regret it and I’m going to make your life a living hell.”
“She had been around this monster since she was about six years old…I don’t understand how you can carry yourself, walk around preaching the word, and live a lie,” the girl’s father, who chose to stay anonymous, said. The father also expressed confusion and disgust that Carter was able to take any pleasure from the encounters.
According to the arrest warrant, the pastor would make the young girl perform a sexual act on him every night and the violations of the young girl escalated over time, going from a bedroom at his home to a bedroom at Carter’s grandmother’s home to behind an HEB parking lot. Eventually, he grew bold enough to allegedly assault her at an office he had at the Greater Bible Way Church in Sunnyside.
“The victim in this case alleges that she was sexually abused from the age of 7 and it did not conclude until she was 19, with the sexual encounters occurring hundreds of times,” according to court records, which say she has been assaulted at least 600 times.
She’s had an episode where she ended up in the hospital for psychiatric reasons,” the girl’s father said, adding that the girl had her baby when she was 16 in a closet by herself. “What if she would’ve died that night? She had that baby in the closet, by herself. He came and got the baby and took the baby to a fire station and dropped the baby off.”
KHOU reported that, according to court proceedings, the baby that was initially dropped off at the fire station has been adopted. A DNA test has been ordered to determine if Carter is the child’s father.
The judge has set Carter’s bond at $200,000 and has stipulated that if Carter does bond out, he is not to go anywhere where children might be present.
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