A Dutch reformed church minister faces three years in jail for the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl who came to him for help after being abused by her step-father.

Peter K, who has five children, was minister of the Hersteld Hervormde Geemente church in Oude-Beijerland – a strict Protestant grouping – when the attacks are said to have happened. The girl, who read out a statement in court, said she had considered K to be a father figure.

She had turned to him for advice because she could not discuss the abuse within her own family, she said. ‘At the weekend he preached, during the week he was all over me,’ the Telegraaf quotes the girl as saying.

Seventh commandment

The minister was suspended in April 2014 for ‘breaking the terms of the seventh commandment,’ a church official said at the time.

The prosecution has called for a three-year sentence, six months suspended.

K’s lawyer argues, however, that the girl is known for making things up. In addition, K was going through a difficult time with family issues during the period in which the attacks are said to have happened, the defence said.