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A Korean man who went through an exorcism procedure told a High Court trial today a church minister pressed his neck so hard he could not breathe.
The man told a manslaughter trial in Auckland that he could not talk and struggled to breathe as Pastor Luke Lee pressed
his neck to get rid of demons.
Lee, 38, a Korean also known as Yong Bum Lee, is facing two alternative counts of manslaughter after a woman died last December during the exorcism at his Mt Roskill home.
The woman, Kum Ok Lee, also known as Joanna Lee, died after Pastor Lee exorcised demons from her body, which he believed had lodged in her throat.
In court today, the witness, who was granted interim name suppression, said Lee would press his body from his lower stomach to his neck to get rid of the demons.
Through an interpreter he told the court he did not feel any demons being cast out. At one stage Lee sat on his stomach and bounced to get the demons out. The witness said that was more painful than when Lee pressed on his neck.
The witness said he arrived in New Zealand in August last year to be a missionary and to learn English. He stayed at Lee's house with several others, but noticed differences between the Assembly Of God church in Korea and Lee's church in Auckland.
In response to a question from Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins, the witness said that when they prayed at Lee's church, there was a lot of yelling.
"When they prayed they didn't say words, it was like groaning," he said.
He also told the court there was yelling, singing, dancing and whistling during the prayers and exorcism.
The trial is continuing.
- NZPA
