A 63-year-old cleric, Chris Douglas, has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Lagos State Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja for raping a church member’s daughter.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Rahman Oshodi ruled that Douglas, the General Overseer of Peculiar Generation Assembly Church in Oshodi, abused his position of authority and trust to exploit the victim.
The judge described the act as a grave breach of trust, noting that the convict was seen as a father figure by the victim and her family.
The court found that the abuse occurred on multiple occasions in a hotel, where the victim had accompanied the cleric, relying on him for spiritual guidance.
Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution established that the victim suffered severe psychological trauma, including depression and recurring suicidal thoughts, as a result of the abuse.
During the trial, the prosecution, led by Director of Public Prosecution, Dr Babajide Martins, presented five witnesses, including the victim, her mother, and a medical doctor, alongside medical and documentary evidence.
Testifying before the court, the victim said the cleric initially drugged and raped her in September 2017, adding that she had trusted him as a spiritual father.
Her mother also told the court that she confronted the cleric after learning about the incident.
However, Douglas denied the allegations, claiming the relationship was consensual, a defence the court dismissed for lacking evidential support.
Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution proved the offence of rape beyond reasonable doubt, despite discounting some documentary evidence that did not comply with the Evidence Act, 2011.
The court noted that while some allegations predating January 2018 were not sufficiently established, the prosecution successfully proved incidents of rape that occurred after the victim turned 18.
Douglas was consequently discharged on six counts of defilement and sexual assault but found guilty on three counts of rape.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment on each count, with the sentences to run concurrently.
The court also ordered that his name be entered into the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register, stressing that the law must protect vulnerable individuals and punish abuse of trust decisively.
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