A businesswoman on Monday, January 9, told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Lagos State, that her 17-year-old daughter was allegedly defiled by a pastor, Chris Mcdouglas.
According to Punch, the woman alleged that the clergyman who is of the Peculiar Generation Assembly Church, Lagos, allegedly had sex with the survivor at the back of his church and in different hotels on several occasions.
The victim’s mother, who was led in evidence in chief by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Dr Babajide Martins, told the court that the defendant raped her daughter from 2017 to 2020 in the guise of taking her out for gospel ministration.
Mcdouglas is standing trial on nine counts bordering on defilement, rape and sexual assault by penetration, preferred against him by the Lagos State Government.
While testifying before Justice Ramon Oshodi in court, the distraught mum said when she found out about the abuse, she confronted the clergyman. She claimed he bursted into tears and blamed it on the devil.
“Pastor Mcdouglas will 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.
Unknown to me, according to my daughter, when he takes her out for ministration, he will branch in 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 told me to forgive him.”
She stated that she recorded her conversation as well as the defendant’s alleged confession on her phone.
“The pastor, whom I trusted so much with my family and saw as my spiritual father, entered my house anytime I was not around to have sex with my daughter. My daughter told me Pastor Mcdouglas would sneak into the house while I was not around, cover the curtains, cover her mouth and force himself on her.
My daughter said when he sees that she wants to shout to attract our neighbours, pastor will bring out the fairly-used clothes that I sell and pretend to be selecting from it,” she added.
She told the court that her daughter’s alleged sexual encounter with the defendant drove her (victim) into depression, which made her faint constantly. The mother added that the defendant would come to the house and pray for her daughter whenever she fainted. He further told them to sow seed to the church for her to stay alive
“I used my salary most times to sow seed on the instruction of Pastor Mcdouglas and my husband also gave him money to buy supplements for me.
She said sometimes, the pastor will call her to his house to help wash his children’s clothes and ended up raping her in his house. He threatened my daughter that she would die if she told anyone about it.”
During cross-examination by the defence counsel, Mr 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. She stated that the defendant used to collect money from her family and he did not offer financial help to her family.
The woman said she was a member of the ushering department, an administrative officer and a member of the building committee of the church but left the church in 2020. She confirmed to the court that the survivor, who is her first daughter, was depressed from 2017 to 2020.
“My daughter is moody whenever she comes back from pastor’s house, which is inside the church. Pastor does not give me breathing space as he is always in my house.
My daughter always faints anytime she comes back from ministration and pastor always gives her holy water to drink. This has affected my daughter as she always have suicidal thought because I once received a call from her school that she wanted to buy an insecticide,” she said.