Pastor jailed for abusing 10 year old girl

A 40-year old pastor of the Twelve Apostles Church at Akyem Achiase in the Eastern Region has been jailed for 10 years by the Asamankese Circuit Court for sexually abusing a 10-year old girl.

Narrating the facts of the case to a crowded court at Asamankese, Chief Inspector B.E.A. Botchway of Achiase Police Station said on June 7 this year, the girl stole C1000 belonging t her grandmother at Achiase. When the woman detected the theft, she attempted to punish the little girl who took refuge with Pastor Arthur and pleaded with him to intervene on her behalf to which he agreed.

According to Inspector Botchway, Arthur kept the girl in the mission house and at about 8 p.m., he forcibly had sex with her. After that he made her stay in the mission house for three days before allowing her to go home. When the little girl reached home, the grandmother immediately detected that she could not walk properly and when asked what was wrong, she confessed to having been assaulted sexually by Pastor Arthur. The grandmother lodged a complaint with the Achiase Police and girl was sent to the hospital where medical examination revealed that her hymen had been broken. Consequently, Pastor Arthur was arrested and charged.

Arthur, who pleaded guilty to the offence, called for mitigation of sentence claiming that the whole thing was caused by Satan.

In his ruling, the presiding magistrate Nana Gyamera Tawia noted with concern that Arthur who is a pastor had behaved in a bestial manner and deserved to be punished severely. He had turned the mission house, which is considered to be a place of refuge, into a lion's den. "The role of the pastor is just inconsistent with what he had done and I must keep him out of decent society for sometime" Nana Tawia added. He concluded by wondering what kind of teaching Arthur had been imparting to his congregation and said he considered Arthur to be unfit to live amongst civilised society, let alone to head a decent church like the Twelve Apostles Church.