Youth pastor sexually exploited teens to 'help them gain purity'

A former youth pastor arrested in Iowa on 60 counts of suspicion of sexual exploitation allegedly told teenage boys he was trying to help them gain "sexual purity in the eyes of God."

Thirty-one-year-old Brent Girouex, a former youth pastor at Victory Fellowship Church in Council Bluffs, turned himself in to the police in February after four young men came forward with allegations against him, The Daily Nonpareil reported.

Girouex has been released on a $30,000 bond and is due back in court on April 21. If found guilty, he faces up to five years on each charge.

Court documents show Girouex told investigators he had sexual contact with a teenage boy 25 to 50 times over a four-year period, starting when the boy was 14-years-old. He allegedly told investigators that it was his duty as a youth pastor "to help [the teen] with homosexual urges by praying while he had sexual contact with him."

"In my line of work, I get to see the worst of the worst, and this is pretty bad," Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber told KETV. His office is working with the alleged victims.

At least eight people have come forward with accusations against Girouex, ranging in age from 14 to 23.

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