Lawsuits accuse former California megachurch pastor of child sex abuse in Bucharest

LOS ANGELES — 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.

LOS ANGELES — 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 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. The men are “hurt, angry and still suffering from PTSD and social difficulties,” said Jef McAllister, a London-based lawyer with the law firm representing Barbu and Petcu.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually abused 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.