By Adebisi Onanuga An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court yesterday heard how a pastor, Chris Mcdouglas, allegedly defiled th...
By Adebisi Onanuga
An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court yesterday heard how a pastor, Chris Mcdouglas, allegedly defiled the 17-year-old daughter of a business woman
Mcdouglas, a pastor at Peculiar Generation Assembly Church, Lagos, is facing a nine-count-charge bordering on defilement and sexual assault by penetration before Justice Ramon Oshodi.
He pleaded not guilty.
Led in evidence by the Director, Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr Babajide Martins, the business woman told the court that the defendant had sexual intercourse with her daughter on different occasions between 2017 to 2020 in the guise of taking her out for gospel ministration.
The witness said that the defendant had sex with the survivor at the back of his church, in different hotels and in her house.
According to her: “Pastor Mcdouglas would come to my house and ask my daughter to follow him for ministration so as to use her talent as a chorister to bless others.
“According to my daughter, he would branch to a hotel and have sex with her.
“When I confronted him with some leaders in the church, he said he was deceived by the devil and pleaded with me to forgive him.”
She said when confronted, the defendant cried and blamed it on the devil.
The witness said that she recorded her conversations with the defendant as well as his alleged confession, on her phone.
The witness further told the court that her daughter told her that Pastor Mcdouglas would sneak into the house whenever she was not around, cover the curtains, cover her mouth and force himself on her.
She said her daughter said that sometimes, the pastor would call her to his house to help and wash his children’s clothes and end up raping her.
She said the alleged sexual assault of her daughter by the defendant had plunged the survivor into depression, making her to faint occasionally.
She told the court that each time her daughter fainted, the defendant would come and pray for her and request that she should give an offering.
“I used my salary most times to sow seed on the instruction of Pastor Mcdouglas.
“He threatened my daughter that she would die if she told anyone about it,” the witness said.
The six audio recordings of conversations between the witness and the defendant which were contained in a flashdrive, were admitted in evidence.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Suleiman Salami, the witness told the court that she had known the defendant for more than 12 years and that her husband had been outside Nigeria for 10 years.
According to her, she was a member of the church’s ushering department, administrative officer and a member of building committee of the church until she left in 2020.
She told the court that the survivor was her first daughter.
The Investigative Police Officer, Insp Akikuowo Omiere, also a prosecution witness, told the the court that she received a report on April 15, 2020 that the defendant had canal knowledge of a 17-year-old church member.
During cross-examination, the witness said that the survivor told her that she had not had sex before then.
She added that she was shown a medical report of the survivor from Mirabel Medical Centre, which revealed vaginal penetration.
Justice Oshodi has adjourned the case until February 8 for continuation of trial.
No comments