Jae-Kap Joe Song, 55, who once operated a convenience store in the older section of Orangeville and is said to have established a small church, has been charged in Toronto with inappropriately touching a female parishioner.

Orangeville Police Service has confirmed that Mr. Song has not been charged here, but Community Relations Officer Scott Davis said he does not know whether Toronto police conducted part of their investigation here.

The Toronto Star said Monday that five other persons, former members of the church, along with three others who had gone to South Korea are among those faced with a variety of “lurid allegations of sexual misconduct” in relation to church activities, as well as an aggregate of about 100 charges including “threatening death, administering drugs for sex, gang sexual assault and making child pornography.”

Because of a publication ban, the church and the alleged victims cannot be identified.

In Orangeville, several members of the Korean community denied any knowledge of Mr. Song or his church when approached by this paper. However, a former convenience store on Mill Street a few years ago is believed to have been owned by a family with the surname of Song.

That store has since been converted, and was locked Monday.

The incidents reported by The Star apparently began at Valentine’s Day but have since had two major Korean news networks, MBC and SBC, have had teams reporting the situation from Toronto – primarily because female members of the church are reported to be, or have been, Korean citizens in Canada on student visas.

Toronto lawyer Jacqueline An, who represents one of the accused, couldn’t be reached for comment this week as she is out of the country, but she is quoted extensively by The Star, which said she “refuses to call Song a

pastor’ or ‘reverend,’ saying instead that he was the leader of a cult with branches in the GTA and South Korea.”

One of the Korean networks reported that Mr. Song received his religious credentials from a mail-order house in California.

In South Korea, Mr. Song is reported to be facing charges of mischief, threatening, forcible confinement and defamation of character.

The allegations have not been proven in court. The accused persons are all either out of the country or free on bail, and matters are still at the pretrial stages.

The alleged incidents and complaints related to the church all appear to have arisen in recent months.

Previously, the congregation( s) are reported to have had normally joyful activities that might have been expected of any church group. The Star said the church had been established about 10 years ago, and hadn’t been the subject of harsh criticism in that time.

Now the allegations are largely of a sexual nature, including gang sex, anal sex, accusations of promiscuity one female who reportedly said she was forced to run naked around “an Orangeville convenience store” as punishment for her sins.

Others are reported by The Star as saying Mr. Song appeared to have sex, rather than religion, on his mind.