The Koforidua Magistrate Court ‘B’ in the Eastern regional capital has remanded a 43-year-old pastor, Addo Gyimah into prison custody for allegedly washing the vagina of a female church member, stimulating her clitoris and eventually having anal sex with a church member.

The suspect, who is expected to re-appear before the court on April 27, 2021, has been charged with two counts of indecent assault and unnatural carnal knowledge.

Presenting the facts of the case, the prosecutor, Chief Inspector Hayford Osei told the court that in August 2020, the 20-year-old complainant (name withheld) who is an apprentice at Akyem Awenade in the Atiwa West District in the region and her family started attending prayer service at the accused person’s prayer centre called ‘Nyame Ne Hene Prayer Centre’ at Akyem Banso in the same district.

According to the prosecutor, on October 13, 2020, at about 4:30 am after an all-night service, the pastor revealed to the victim that her chronic illness had spiritual underpinnings and therefore required ‘spiritual’ cleansing in order to cast out the demons from her.

The pastor therefore asked the victim to come to his house for spiritual ‘direction’.

The accused obliged and when he got to the pastor’s house he took an anointing oil and something he called holy water and asked the victim to lie down so that he could wash her vagina with it for her as part of the cleansing exercise.

The prosecutor said in the process of washing the victim’s vagina, the accused person put his fingers into the vagina and stimulated her clitoris.

The accused pastor allegedly forced the victim and had anal sex with her, after which he warned her not to inform anybody about it.

Out of fear, the victim did not inform anyone but after few days she began to bleed from her anus.

She then confided in her sister’s husband about her ordeal and the brother-in-law advised her to lodge a complaint at the police station.

The case was therefore reported to the police on October 15, 2020, after which a medical form was issued to her for medical treatment.

The accused person was arrested by police on October 19, 2020 but the accused person denied all the accusations but said he only massaged the body of the victim during the so-called cleansing exercise.

The police charged the accused after further investigations were conducted, and put him before court for the offence.

—DGN online