FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 26, 2026
Brooklyn Pastor Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Repeatedly
Sexually Assaulting a Member of his Congregation When She was a Child
Defendant Approached Victim from Behind and Shoved Him
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Brooklyn pastor has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for repeatedly sexually abusing a child whose family were members of his Brooklyn church. The defendant was convicted of course of sexual conduct against a child last month following a jury trial.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Rape results in trauma that lasts a lifetime and we will never stop seeking justice for those who have been sexually violated. With today’s sentence, the defendant has been held accountable for this deplorable crime, affording the victim a measure of closure for the horror inflicted upon her as a child.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Paul Lewis, 63, of East New York, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Naiburg to 14 years in prison and 10 years of post-release supervision. The defendant was convicted of first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child on September 24, 2026, following a jury trial.
The District Attorney said that, according to the evidence, in 2014 the defendant, who was the pastor of Messengers for Christ World Healing Center in Brooklyn, which also has branches in Jamaica, Trinidad and Germany, knew the 11-year-old victim and her family who were members of his congregation.
Between September 3, 2014 and December 23, 2014, according to the evidence, the defendant picked up the child from her home in his vehicle under the guise of getting food, and brought her to the vicinity of 1380 Broadway, a McDonald’s in Bedford-Stuyvesant, where on multiple occasions he sexually assaulted her in his vehicle at that location. On one occasion, he brought the girl to a brownstone in Brooklyn where he removed her clothes and sexually assaulted her.
The victim ultimately walked into the 81st Precinct stationhouse and reported the incidents to police on February 26, 2024. The defendant was arrested following an investigation.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Jourdan Thompson, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Linda Weinman, Deputy Chief of the Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Miss Gregory, Bureau Chief.
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