Howard Curtis, 72, who left his role in June 2013 as a senior minister Coulsdon Christian Fellowship, in south London, is facing 12 charges involving seven victims.
According to the Telegraph, jurors heard he would also smack children in his congregation "but not in a way to warn or chastise them". "He would put them over his knee and hit them hard until they cried and, in some cases, marks appeared, in what the Crown would say amounted to cruelty," said Jane Osborne, prosecuting.
She added: "He would conduct something known as 'deliverance ministry', said to be casting out evil spirits from a person, and he would tell people that discipline needed to be administered to people, in particular to women. This would be done by striking flesh with a bare hand."
Mr Curtis, of Wallington, south London, denies all the charges. The trial continues.
