Evil spirit: death and the exorcist

PAUL YANDALL explores the strange, demon-haunted world of Luke Lee - swindler, pastor and now a convicted killer.

In Luke Lee's world, demons are everywhere. They possess the young and the old, the peaceful and troubled, the unbeliever and the pious alike.

In his Lord of All's Church, there were few as troubled or as pious as Joanna Lee (no relation). Her apparently unhappy past convinced Lee that she needed to be freed from demonic possession.

In December last year, he decided she should undergo a "Deliverance" - a unique method of exorcism which involved church followers ridding the body of devils and demons by fighting them off. The fighting involved blowing whistles, roaring aloud, and physically pushing the evil spirits out of the body.

The possessed included almost everyone in the church at one time or another. Possession could take a number of forms, from the slightest physical ailment up.

When her turn came, Joanna Lee fasted and was deprived of sleep for three days.

The exorcism began at a rented hall in Dominion Rd, Balmoral, about 10 pm on December 8. It continued there until 7 am the next day, when Lee and his followers returned to his Mt Roskill home on Marydale Drive for breakfast and sleep. The Deliverance continued at midday.

Lee and his followers were convinced that Ms Lee was possessed by 10 demons. It took about an hour to cast out eight, but the remaining two were proving stubborn.

To aid the exorcism, Ms Lee burned personal possessions, including a document certifying her baptism into the Jerusalem Church in Korea, but the demons remained. More documents, photographs and an address book were burned.

By this time she had started to "speak in tongues", witnesses said.

While church members restrained her, Lee bounced on her stomach and held her neck trying to dislodge the demon. She began to plead with him to stop but he ignored her.

"We thought it was Satan's word," said one of the main participants in the exorcism, Sun Kyoungh Park.

As the demon supposedly made its way up from Ms Lee's stomach towards her neck, Lee placed his hands round her throat to force it out. She began to convulse, but Lee did not stop and she died, presumably from strangulation.

Undeterred, Lee announced that she would rise again. Even at his trial this week he was still predicting her resurrection next Monday.

Yesterday, an Auckland jury ignored his plea for more time and found the 38-year-old Korean guilty of manslaughter. He was remanded in custody for sentencing this month.

Lee first arrived in New Zealand from South Korea in 1994 on a student permit. Details of his past are sketchy, but he is believed to have been born in the southern city of Kyongsan in 1963.

In a 1995 application to attend the Advance Ministry Training Centre in Henderson - a Bible college run by the Assemblies of God - he stated in the Occupation category: "Five years in army - as a sargent [sic] computer missile system. Had responsibility for approx. 1000 soldiers. Manager of a manufacturing car company for five years."

He went on to say: "I have recently divorced from my lovely wife in Korea and previous to that was still recovering from the grief of the death of both my parents.

"At that stage I was a Buddhist. Because of the intense grief that I was suffering I decided to come to NZ to start a new life. Soon after arrival I was introduced to Christianity and feel I have discovered the answer to my prayers through the great love of Jesus Christ."

But police here believe Lee was "doing a runner" from Korea to avoid sour business dealings, compulsory military service and his family.

Soon after arriving in New Zealand, he began flatting at a Birkenhead house owned by Monique Feron.

Ms Feron said he was a quiet tenant who got up early every morning to attend the Assembly of God church in Takapuna. It was during that time that he decided to become a minister, but she said his motivation was more than love of God.

"There was some concern over whether he could stay here. One of his friends said if he became a minister he would be allowed to, so off he went."

From May 1995 until April 1997 he studied at the Advance Ministry Training Centre.

From all accounts he was a good student, if somewhat troubled. One report notes: "In spite of [the] many difficulties [that] exist in his life he works very hard for the Glory of God."

It was while he was a student that Lee married his present wife, Mi Young Lee. They have a daughter.

After completing his studies, he returned to Korea for 18 months.

Pastor Les Dowie, who was to supervise him after he applied to become a minister, said Lee returned to Korea to face his past and "put things right".

In court, Lee referred to himself as a swindler, "the king of sinners" in reference to his past. In Korea in 1998 he was convicted of fraud and also spent a short term in prison for defaulting on his national service.

Despite his conviction, he managed to return to New Zealand on a student permit in 1999.

He applied to become a minister with the Assemblies of God and was granted a two-year probationary credential to practise before being ordained.

He began further religious studies at the Fowey Lodge Bible School in Howick, and in May last year he registered his Lord of All's Church with the Assemblies of God.

In October last year he applied for a work permit and permanent residency. But just two months later his dream of settling here and having his own flock began to unravel.

Living with Lee then at his Mt Roskill home was his family and about half a dozen other Korean nationals, all members of his church.

The congregation, which numbered about 20 by then and included Koreans, Burmese, Indians and two New Zealanders, were encouraged to sing, dance, fast, and pray for hours on end with little sleep.

They were not popular with the neighbours. One said: "They are queer, full stop. There is chanting, raving and squealing - violent squealing. I went outside one night because I thought someone was being attacked, but it was a woman and a man squealing as hard as they could for five minutes."

Among Lee's most devoted disciples was Joanna Lee, who first met him in Korea in 1999. Impressed with his devotion to Christ, she decided to visit him in New Zealand. She arrived with a friend in October last year and began living with Lee.

Ms Lee was not planning to stay long - she had a visitor's permit for three months and a return ticket.

She never got to use it. After her Deliverance, her body lay decomposing at Lee's home for six days, turning black. The skin began to fall off and maggots started to breed.

Lee and his followers would conduct prayers and perform rituals which included cutting the body's hair and washing it with alcohol.

One of those rituals was videotaped, and on the tape Lee remains convinced of resurrection and excuses the deteriorating state of the body as God's will.

At no stage is a doctor or the police called.

A pathologist was unable to determine the exact cause of death. There was bruising around the chest, two fractured ribs and a broken sternum.

On December 15, a neighbour, Ed Muir, was invited to visit the church. He said Lee asked him to be its media representative.

"[Lee said] she was going to come back to life and it was going to be a worldwide affair."

Mr Muir called the police and, after a two-month investigation, Lee was charged with manslaughter.

He and his church have been deregistered by the Assemblies of God and most of his followers have dispersed, with many Koreans reportedly returning home.