UPDATED::Cult leader Victor Barnard wins appeal, sentence will be reduced - Story | KMSP

UPDATE:: Cult leader Victor Barnard re-sentenced, judge makes findings for civil commitment

Cult leader Victor Barnard returned to a Pine County, Minnesota courtroom on Tuesday for re-sentencing after winning an appeal last November that challenged his 30-year prison term. On Oct. 11, 2016, Barnard unexpectedly pleaded guilty to sexually molesting two of his teenage followers.

The 30-year sentence was an upward departure in a plea deal that was agreed upon by prosecutors and Barnard’s defense, but it was tossed out on appeal based on a judicial technicality. Barnard had been charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct, but pleaded guilty to two counts that carried a presumptive sentence of 24 years in prison. A three-judge appeals panel sided with Barnard because the court failed to provide its reasons for the upward departure at the time of the original sentencing.

Minnesota cult leader Victor Barnard has won an appeal of his criminal conviction, throwing out the upward departure of his 30-year prison. Barnard's sentence will be reduced to 24 years.

The court ruled "the case law on this issue is clear: when a district court fails to provide reasons for a sentencing departure on the record at the time of sentencing, no departure will be allowed. Although we have no doubt that permissible departure grounds exist in this case, because the district court did not provide any departure grounds on the record at the time of sentencing, case law compels us to remand for imposition of the presumptive sentence. We are obligated to follow the law."

Sources tell Fox 9 Barnard has been moved to a prison outside of Minnesota, for his safety. In January an inmate of the Rush City, Minnesota, prison said he “was doing God’s work” when he allegedly assaulted Barnard in a cell.

Cult leader Victor Barnard wins appeal, sentence will be reduced - Story | KMSP

UPDATE::Prison for MN sect leader Victor Barnard in girls' sex assaults

The leader of an isolated religious sect in Minnesota pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting two teenage girls who were members of his community.

As part of the plea deal, Victor Barnard, 55, agreed to serve 30 years in prison.

Barnard was the longtime leader of the River Road Fellowship near Finlayson, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

Prison for MN sect leader Victor Barnard in girls' sex assaults

What to Know About Sex Offender Victor Barnard -- The Cut

It's hard to believe anyone could rape and brainwash so many people and get away with it for so long, but Victor Barnard did. The Minnesota religious cult leader convinced 150 people he was like God, invited them all to live on an isolated campground, and coerced the parents in the group into letting him rape their oldest daughters (his "maidens") for years, all in the name of Jesus Christ.

Fifty-four-year-old Barnard fled the U.S. two years ago after two women accused him of abuse, sparking an international manhunt and landing him on the U.S. Marshals Service’s Most Wanted List. He was captured and held in Brazil for over a year until last weekend, when he was finally extradited back to Pine County, over an hour's drive north of Minneapolis. On Monday, Barnard appeared in court for the first time, facing 59 counts of first- and third-degree sexual assault of minors from the two women who claim he raped them for years.

The judge set bail at $1.5 million. Prosecutors, who are preparing for Barnard's next court appearance on July 5, say Barnard's followers are now liquidating their assets to pay for his release.


What to Know About Sex Offender Victor Barnard -- The Cut

UPDATED::Victor Barnard, Fugitive Minnesota Cult Leader, Spotted In Washington

UPDATE::  ‘Maidens’ cult leader booked into Pine County Jail

Former Minnesota fugitive Victor Barnard, a religious leader who fled to Brazil to avoid charges of sexually abusing young girls, was booked Saturday afternoon into the Pine County Jail.

Barnard, 54, faces multiple felony charges alleging criminal sexual conduct, including sexual contact with minors under age 13.

Barnard became the subject of an international manhunt and landed on the U.S. Marshals Service’s “Most Wanted” list after being charged with 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct in April 2014. Prosecutors allege he chose 10 girls and young women from his River Road Fellowship to live apart from their families in a “Maidens Group” and housed them in a camp near Finlayson, 90 miles north of the Twin Cities.

__

Authorities in Washington say they have received a "credible tip" as to the location of Victor Barnard, the leader of a cult-like religious sect who is accused of sexually abusing at least two girls.

According to the Washington State Patrol, Barnard, 52, was spotted at a McDonald's restaurant in Raymond on Wednesday. He left with an unidentified female, in a dark blue Audi two door, with tinted windows and a spoiler, police said.

"Additional information was developed that places Barnard in the Raymond and Aberdeen areas for approximately the previous week," the state patrol said in a Wednesday press release.

Court documents provided to The Huffington Post show Barnard is facing 59 counts of criminal sexual conduct related to two young women, who claim he abused them for nearly a decade at the church he led.

The two victims, the criminal complaint alleges, were among several girls who lived at the River Road Fellowship compound in Finlayson, Minnesota, which is located about 90 miles north of Minneapolis.

According to police, the congregation is an offshoot of The Way International, a nondenominational Christian group.

Victor Barnard, Fugitive Minnesota Cult Leader, Spotted In Washington

Caught in a cult's dark embrace | Star Tribune

Victor Barnard played the shepherd, wearing linen clothes and sometimes wielding a shepherd’s crook.

The minister kept his flock close, urging members of the River Road Fellowship to move to four clusters of properties in this rural area and discouraging the girls from traveling to town. As he grew more controlling, he warned his followers against those who might turn against him — calling them wolves in sheep’s clothing.

“That always gets to me now,” former congregant Micah Vail said. “He used that analogy over and over. … It turned out he was the one who was playing everybody.”

Barnard, 52, is now the center of a nationwide manhunt after Pine County prosecutors charged him with using his status within the sect to coerce girls into having sex with him. Two women told investigators that Barnard raped them after they were chosen, at ages 12 and 13, to live near him as part of an honored and cloistered group of “maidens.” He faces 59 counts of first- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

In interviews since the charges, several former congregants said they are saddened — but not shocked — by the allegations after reflecting on how Barnard increasingly cut the fellowship off from society. The ministry changed, too, as Barnard introduced new rules under the guise of religion. It ended as a place where adultery and sex abuse could have secretly flourished, they said.

Such an isolated religious sect is the “perfect environment for abusers to victimize kids,” said Stephen Kent, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta who researches alternative religions.

Oftentimes, leaders do not answer to any outside authority, “so there’s no accountability,” Kent said. They create structures to have exclusive access to children. Then they use religion to “cloak their misbehavior.”

Caught in a cult's dark embrace | Star Tribune

Charges: Minister raped 'Maidens' in Minn. camp for years | Star Tribune

Oh look another "Christian" fucking children for god. Too harsh? Well if one reads the bile, it's incredibly easy to justify this sort of bullshit. We wonder why so many people continue to draw inspiration and guidance from it.

Oh you've never read that part! Shame, shame. You know the part, where Moses commanded the Israelites to keep the female children of their defeated enemies as spoils of war? Or my personal favorite the time two kids made fun of the prophet Elisha for being bald, so god sent some bears to kill them and forty other kids who I guess just happened to be nearby?

What is even more sickening, this wouldn't have happened without the willful indoctrination of the children by their parents. They should be convicted of child abuse for bringing their kids into contact with this monster. These girls can assign a lot of blame to their ignorant parents who bought that religious crap from a snake doctor. It is their poor judgement that abetted this predator.
__
The Star Tribune has more information and related stories. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Victor Barnard is urged to call the Pine County Sheriff’s Office tip line at 1-320-629-8342.
__
Lindsay Tornambe was just 13 years old when she was chosen to be “sacrificed to God,” she remembers.

That announcement in July 2000 came from a minister who led an insular faith community that included her family in central Minnesota. As Tornambe sat in the congregation with her parents, she remembers the minister calling out a list of 10 girls for a position of honor. He would later call them “maidens.”

Soon, her parents dutifully dropped her off at his isolated camp, where what she now calls a nightmare of sexual abuse went on for about nine years.

Pine County authorities announced Tuesday that the minister, 52-year-old Victor A. Barnard, is now facing 59 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct involving his chosen maidens.

[,,,]
Tornambe said she first met Barnard when she was 9. Living in Pennsylvania, her parents had been following his ministry and home schooling their children. The family visited Minnesota a lot, she said, and eventually moved to join the congregation near Finlayson when she was 11.

They lived and worked there and had little contact with the outside world, she said.

It became clear sometime after her name was called at the meeting with the congregation that her move to live with Barnard was intended to be permanent. “My parents dropped me off July 23, 2000,” Tornambe said. “Victor had us celebrate it every year, it was like our anniversary.”

Within about a month of the move, she said, Barnard talked to her about sex. He used terms she didn’t understand, and he grew angry about it, thinking she was lying about not understanding. She said he raped her for the first time then and continued sexually assaulting her over the course of nine years. The frequency varied from about once a month to about five times a month, she said.

“If I wasn’t being spiritual or following his orders, he wouldn’t have sex with us,” she said. “If we were doing well, it was almost like he rewarded us.” She rarely saw her parents, though they lived only about 5 miles away, she said.

Charges: Minister raped 'Maidens' in Minn. camp for years | Star Tribune

See also: 
 For Years, Minister Raped Young Teens With Parents’ Tacit Approval; Manhunt Underway

 VICTOR BARNARD: The history of a cult leader