The 18-year-old living in Sydney’s west came from a family scarred by years of domestic abuse. The month before,an apprehended violence order had been finalised against her father,following an assault that had left her unconscious.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was acquitted of an aggravated indecent assault in 2014.Supplied
After the latest family argument,the woman had gone outside to make calls,including one to a bishop at her new church.
His name was Mar Mari Emmanuel. He picked her up and took her to his home about 2.30am.
Bishop Emmanuel,53,was thrust into the spotlight last month after he was stabbed at the pulpit of his western Sydney church while conducting a live-streamed sermon,in what police have labelled a terror attack.
But even before the stabbing,the preacher nicknamed “the TikTok bishop” was well known to many online.
The Wakeley bishop allegedly stabbed two weeks ago has been given a standing ovation as he returned to the pulpit.
His religious teachings and his often polarising comments – about geopolitics,the LGBTQ community and COVID-19 vaccines – circulate in short-form videos and have earned the bishop a large audience,including hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers.
The most senior clergyman within Christ The Good Shepherd Church at Wakeley,Emmanuel has also preached in the US and he also serves as a director of the church’s not-for-profit entity,OneJesus Limited,which has bought properties worth $15 million since 2021,including $12 million in the past year alone.
Now theHerald has been granted access to a court transcript detailing a previously unreported chapter of the bishop’s past.
In 2013,Emmanuel was accused of committing an aggravated indecent assault against the young woman he took to his home that night in November.
Magistrate Elaine Truscott found the bishop had touched the woman sexually. She described him as “distinctly fallen from grace”.
“The defendant has taken advantage of this vulnerable and confused young woman for his own pleasure,” Truscott said in her findings on June 10,2014.
But she ultimately dismissed the charge against the bishop,also known as Robert Shlimon,finding the prosecution had not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the woman’s lack of consent had been communicated to him.
Emmanuel,whose role as bishop required celibacy,had pleaded not guilty,denying the sexual touching ever took place.
That same year,he was suspended from his church,St Zaia Cathedral at Middleton Grange,which is part of the Ancient Church of The East denomination,before he left and became leader of the breakaway church Christ The Good Shepherd.
Bishop Emmanuel is the senior clergyman at Christ The Good Shepherd at Wakeley in Sydney’s west.Getty
TheHerald sought comment from the bishop,who has returned to preaching following the stabbing,as well as Christ The Good Shepherd,but did not receive a response.
According to the 2014 judgment,the woman had suffered depression and had twice been scheduled to a mental health facility,but there was no evidence she had suffered psychosis or delusional thinking.
A regular attendee at mass,she had started visiting youth group meetings at a new church in September 2013.
One night in September,when she was in distress,she called a member of the church’s youth group,who put her in touch with the St Zaia bishop. Emmanuel agreed to visit her father and spoke with him before dropping her home.
The woman said in the weeks that followed Emmanuel drove her to or from several church events,at points holding her hand and calling her “libby”,meaning “my love”.
She would call or text him when upset. He sent her text messages saying “love you” and she said “love you” several times.
She said he would ask “will you be my girlfriend? Will you marry me?” before suggesting he was joking,which made her feel uncomfortable.
When he appeared before Bankstown Local Court in 2014,Emmanuel said he could not recall asking her to be his girlfriend and that his messages were fatherly.
The magistrate rejected this characterisation,finding the messages were romantic,seductive and highly inappropriate;they “actually suggest that he is preying on a highly vulnerable and needy young woman”.
Emmanuel previously served as bishop at St Zaia’s Cathedral at Middleton Grange before splitting with the church in 2014.Supplied
Testifying over two days in court,the woman gave the following account of the night of the alleged assault.
She said that after she called the bishop,he had convinced her to come to his house where he lived with his mother. He offered her a sandwich and tea,insisting she drink the whole cup.
Soon after,she felt extremely tired. She fell asleep on the couch before the bishop helped her walk to his bedroom,where she slept. On waking,she found Emmanuel in his office.
She returned to the bed and Emmanuel joined her,hugging and touching her.
The defendant has taken advantage of this vulnerable and confused young woman for his own pleasure.
Magistrate Elaine Truscott
When she tried to move away,he said,“What’s wrong,libby[my love],don’t you love me?” He began to touch her stomach and breasts,saying “I can be your father,your brother,anything you like.”
The woman told the court she had screamed and tried to stop him but was also frightened. “I was in a freeze position. I didn’t know how to help myself,” she said.
She wanted to vomit and the bishop helped her to the bathroom. Returning to the bed,with her back to him,she later felt his hands inside her pants. She asked to be taken home but the bishop said his car was gone.
At one point he asked her “Do you love me?” and she said yes,hoping he would stop. She later fainted and he splashed water on her face,before driving her home later that morning.
The judgment records Emmanuel’s strong denial of the woman’s allegations.
“I can’t believe what she is saying;absolutely 100 per cent deny it,” he said. “This girl looks like she is mentally unfit.”
On the bishop’s account,he took the woman to his house because she said she could not go home and he had never touched her sexually.
He had partially climbed onto the bed three to four times to hold her as she appeared to be having some kind of seizure. “She would lie down and get on to her knees and swerve sideways,back and forth,eyes flickering,” he said.
Asked why he did not call an ambulance,Emmanuel said the woman would quickly recover each time. He said he offered her food and drink after she fell ill.
Truscott accepted he picked up the young woman because she was in distress and concluded he offered her tea soon after they arrived to comfort her.
Truscott did not accept all the woman’s evidence,rejecting her explanation as to why she sent a text message from the bishop’s house saying she was at a friend’s.
But Truscott found Emmanuel’s evidence “untrue,in most respects of what occurred at the house”. She said the woman,who had a history of fainting,had one episode “at the end of the proceedings,probably caused by the stress the complainant was under”.
“I am satisfied that the defendant did enter her bed and embraced her and caressed her as she says,” Truscott said.
“I think this probably commenced with the defendant trying to comfort her and has then proceeded to engage in his own pleasure.”
The magistrate found the woman had not consented to the sexual touching.
However,Truscott said she was not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the bishop had known the woman was not consenting or did not care whether she was.
On the woman’s evidence,according to Truscott:“… she had no energy and nothing would come out when she tried to scream. She says she froze with fear;she was weakened and felt powerless. She did not tell the defendant to stop;that she did not like it.”
While accepting the woman had squirmed,the magistrate did not find she had necessarily communicated a sign to stop.
“Despite the sordid attempts at pleasuring himself,I am left not being able to determine the true state of the defendant’s mind except to say that it was not the actions of a man with grace,” she found.
She rejected the bishop’s “really quite despicable” comments about the woman’s mental state and trustworthiness.
Emmanuel was ordered not to contact the woman for five years.
Two months later,in August 2014,he addressed a large public gathering to rebut various criticisms he said had been made against him by Ancient Church of the East leadership,one of which was his use of affectionate language. The English portion of the speech did not mention the alleged assault.
In parts of recorded sermons posted to social media,Emmanuel has acknowledged he was “deposed from the church as a bishop” in 2014.
However,he has also defended his continuing use of the title,saying the rank of bishop was bestowed by Christ himself.
“You tell me off,you swear at me,you spit in my face,you drag me in the streets,I will love you forever,” he said in one video.
“But you come and say I don’t belong to Jesus Christ,I am not a bishop,I don’t have the rank of the Lord Jesus,I will shred you if you stand in my way. I will shred you to pieces.”
If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault,call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.
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