Pastor bags life imprisonment for raping church member’s daughter

The Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sitting in the Ikeja area of Lagos State on Thursday sentensed a 63-year-old pastor, Chris Mcdouglas, to life imprisonment for raping his 18-year-old church member’s daughter (name withheld).

The presiding judge, Justice Rahman Oshodi, sentenced Mcdouglas, a pastor at the Peculiar Generation Assembly Church in Lagos, to life imprisonment after he found the cleric guilty of rape.

Justice Oshodi, however, discharged Mcdouglas of six-count-charge out of the nine-count-charge bothering on defilement, sexual assault, and indescent treatment of a child preferred against him by the Lagos State Government.

Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution had successfully proved the charge of rape against the pastor.

The judge described the offence as a grave betrayal of trust that left the survivor with lasting psychological trauma.

Gunmen kidnap UTME candidates, other travellers on Benue highway

He said the evidence before the court showed that the survivor reported the incident to the police shortly after it occurred, leading to an investigation and eventual prosecution.

Justice Oshodi said: “The victim gave a detailed account of an initial incident in September 2017, describing how she was a drugged and raped by the defendant and her testimony was corroborated with her mother’s, who observed physical distress shortly after the incident.

“The defendant also confirmed to the court that he took the survivor to hotels on several occasions.”

The judge consequently convicted the pastor on the charge of rape and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

He also ordered that the pastor’s name should be written in Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.