JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local pastor has been arrested and is facing a capital sexual battery charge after getting booked into jail late Wednesday night.
Paul Dyal of the Jacksonville Assembly of the Body of Christ church in Biltmore was arraigned in court today, and an alleged victim tells Action News Jax she wasn’t the only one this happened to.
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Police have also arrested two other people in connection to the case in Oklahoma, and believe there are more suspects and victims.
The woman said she dealt with abuse for years, saying nobody listened to her. She said the church is more like a cult.
Jerome Teschendorf and Vernon Williamson were arrested on warrants in Oklahoma.
The arrest of 78-year-old Dyal comes decades after a woman who said she was a victim says the abuse happened to her. She didn’t want her name or face shown for safety but told me she was sexually molested by Dyal over 40 years ago.
“We (her family) went into the church around (age) 5, and I was around 7 when he first decided to do what he did,” she said. “My parents got sent out of town to another church, and I got put with him and his wife at his house, and that first night I stayed, he came in the bathroom when I was getting my bath.”
The victim said she filed a report in the late 1990s and then again in 2003, but police started investigating this in 2020. The woman said it happened more than once, and also said there was physical abuse.
“This didn’t happen on one occasion. It happened for the next five to six years, around five to six times a year,” she said. “I had bruises all the way down from my neck all the way down to my ankles.”
Action News Jax went to the church for comment, but the gates were closed. However, several people drove up to get in but declined to comment.
Action News Jax also tried talking to someone whom we were told is a relative of Dyal about the situation right after the arraignment, but they didn’t say anything, and got in their car and drove away. Action News Jax also tried calling but nobody answered, so we left a message.
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The church website is also now private, but wasn’t on Wednesday night.
The survivor we spoke with said this type of abuse made growing up difficult.
“You never feel clean, you never feel good enough, you never feel pretty after any of that, ever,” she said.
Both police and the woman we spoke with say there are more victims and more suspects involved.
“I know it didn’t stop when I left,” she said. “If you can do that to a child and say you’re a pastor and a man of a God, you’re a monster.”
Action News Jax spoke to attorney Cynthia Crawford, who is representing some of the victims in this case.
Crawford said the investigation spans more states than just Florida and Oklahoma.
She said they “intend to prove that this has been happening for over 40 years in our own backyard.”
If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the website: https://rainn.org/about-national-sexual-assault-online-hotline.
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