A former member of evangelical megachurch Greater Grace World Outreach has filed a lawsuit against the organization and its youth pastor, alleging he suffered years of sexual assault and emotional torment in an environment where religious faith was used to silence abuse victims.

John Patrick Richard Capello, now in his 40s, says he was repeatedly assaulted by Youth Pastor John Love’s daughter in the mid to late 1990s, according to the complaint, which was filed Monday in Baltimore City Circuit Court.

He says Love blamed him for the alleged abuse, telling him only men can initiate sexual acts.

The lawsuit is the first filed against church leadership since The Banner last year exposed decades of child sexual abuse and cover-up within the insular organization.

Greater Grace failed to protect Capello and must now be held accountable, said attorney Rob Jenner, who has represented many Baltimore-area victims of alleged Catholic Church sexual abuse.

“Whether you’re in a parish or a public school, whether you belong to a Christian community or not, the obligation of the organization is no different,” Jenner said. “You have a duty to look after your children. You cannot abuse them and expect to get away with it.”

Head Pastor Thomas Schaller, Chief Financial Officer Peter Taggart, and Love did not respond to requests for comment. The youth pastor’s daughter, who is not a defendant in the lawsuit, also did not respond to a request for comment.

On Friday morning, the church posted a statement on its website acknowledging awareness of a new lawsuit. But officials wrote they had not yet been served with the complaint and could not comment on specifics. They added that an independent investigation into the church’s handling of abuse allegations is ongoing.

The probe is being led by an organization called Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment, or GRACE.

“We remain firmly committed to the truth and accountability,” church leaders wrote in the statement. “We are committed to full transparency and accurate communication, no matter what GRACE’s process finds.”

Capello says the alleged abuse began in July 1995 on a mission trip to Eastern Europe, soon after he finished eighth grade and turned 14. The opportunity to evangelize abroad was pitched as a spiritual milestone for young Greater Grace faithful, many of whom were raised in the church.

Before the trip, the youth pastor’s daughter, then 16 and a prominent varsity athlete within the Greater Grace community, approached Capello seeking advice about her boyfriend, according to the complaint. Capello recalls feeling uncomfortable with the request because he’d never dated before.

After landing in Warsaw, Poland, Capello and his classmates traveled by van to Prague, and the youth pastor’s daughter asked to sit next to Capello near the back of the van, the complaint alleges. Capello says he fell asleep and woke up to find the daughter fondling his genitals as youth leader Ray Fernandez looked on.

Fernandez was later convicted of repeatedly molesting two brothers and another man when they were teens growing up in Greater Grace.

“Plaintiff froze, not knowing what was happening or what to do. This was the first time Plaintiff ever ejaculated,” the complaint states. “Prior to this, Plaintiff had never had any kind of physical contact other than hugs from his family.”

The next day, according to the complaint, Fernandez confronted Capello and told him he was responsible for what had happened. Fernandez later mischaracterized the incident when describing it to Love, the complaint states, falsely claiming that the teens were mutually engaged in inappropriate touching.

Love allegedly rejected Capello’s account and instructed him to seek God’s forgiveness, according to the complaint. Love also told Capello to act as if the assault never occurred — establishing a pattern of theological manipulation that would continue for years, according to the complaint.

Jenner said it may be difficult for people outside the Greater Grace community to understand the grip pastors hold over followers and the fear Capello says he felt after this alleged incident. The attorney likened the church to a cult and said Capello believed he would face eternal damnation because of what happened on that bus.

Members of the Millstones, the group of former church members who investigated the organization’s handling of abuse allegations, called the lawsuit a chilling example of church leaders silencing a victim they should have helped.

“The horrific sexual abuse, victim-blaming, manipulation, and spiritual and emotional abuse detailed in the suit have left us reeling,” they wrote in a statement, noting that the first person Capello disclosed his abuse to, Fernandez, was an abuser himself.

“We honor the strength of the victim-survivor in sharing his story. We stand with him in his fight for justice and accountability,” the statement continues. “While each victim-survivor of abuse has their own path to healing, we hope that this is, or can be, a part of his.”

The youth pastor’s daughter allegedly continued assaulting Capello both on and off church property for two more years, stopping only when she graduated from high school and enrolled in a college outside the Baltimore area, according to the complaint.

Meanwhile, Capello was attending Bible classes led by Love.

The youth pastor often warned the teen boys about Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. The Old Testament story depicts the wife of a high-ranking Egyptian official trying to seduce Joseph. When he rejects her advances, she falsely accuses him of attempted rape, and he gets imprisoned.

That was Joseph’s fault, Love would suggest, for not fending off the seductress, according to the complaint.

In 2002, the assaults resumed, according to the complaint. That year, Greater Grace founder Carl Stevens summoned Capello to his office, and Capello says Love was there when he arrived.

“Without evidence or investigation, Pastor Love accused the Plaintiff of having sexual intercourse with his daughter and impregnating her,” the complaint states. “He escalated his intimidation by claiming to possess video evidence of this alleged incident, though he refused to produce it when challenged.”

Stevens and Love then pressured Capello to marry Love’s daughter, who was dating someone else at the time, even though Capello says he never had sexual intercourse with the daughter. He believes the high-ranking pastors were attempting to coerce him to assume financial responsibility for her pregnancy, according to the complaint. He refused to comply.

Capello disclosed the alleged abuse to his wife in 2013, and she encouraged him to start seeing a therapist, according to the complaint. He later asked his parents why they didn’t do more to protect him from the youth pastor’s daughter. It was only then he learned that Love had lied. The youth pastor never told Capello’s parents about the alleged assault that occurred in the van.

They had no idea he’d been harmed.

Jenner said he and Capello have a simple message for other victims of abuse at Greater Grace — you are not alone.

“Survivors think they’re the only ones, and they feel guilty,” Jenner said. “They feel that it’s their fault, that they did something to contribute to their own pain. That is just not true.”

“There is a time and place for healing,” he added. “And that time is now.”