UK-BASED NIGERIAN PROPHET, OLURONBI JAILED; BAGS 34-YEARS IN PRISON FOR RAPING CHURCH MEMBERS
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Michael Oluronbi, a 60-year-old Nigerian evangelical preacher who lives in the UK, was found guilty on several charges of raping members of his congregation and was given a 34-year prison sentence.
Some of his female victims became pregnant more than once; the jury was informed. It was discovered that for more than 20 years, he had abused adults and children by abusing his position.
The Mail Online reports that Oluronbi, a Birmingham resident who is originally from Nigeria, was found guilty in January of sexually abusing six women and one man. A judge called the case “one of the worst cases of sexual abuse of multiple children to come before the courts.”
After persuading victims—five of whom were members of his church—to participate in “spiritual bathing,” which he said would “cleanse” them of bad spirits, he committed some of his crimes.
A jury was told during the trial at Birmingham Crown Court that some of his young female victims, who had gotten pregnant several times, had been taken to abortion clinics by licensed chemist Oluronbi in order to conceal the situation.
15 charges of rape, 7 counts of indecent assault, and 2 counts of sexual assault were found proven against him.
The jury was informed that he had sexually assaulted his victims on a minimum of 88 different occasions.
His wife, Juliana, was convicted of three counts of aiding and abetting rape after helping arrange some of the terminations. She was also jailed for 11 years for helping her husband.
‘Everything was my fault’ admits pastor in video confession
In a confession videoed last year by a victim’s family member who had confronted him, the pastor is heard saying: ‘Everything was just my fault, and as I said before, I wasn’t meant to be human.
‘I wasn’t meant to live under the roof of any human being and I said that I was an animal.’
The footage was released by West Midlands Police after the trial.
The victim’s relative is then heard, off-camera, asking the pastor: ‘You know I said that you are a paedophile? Everyone knows that you’re a paedophile. You know that that’s the name they give to your type?’
Oluronbi, who appears on camera in a formal shirt and tie speaking animatedly, raising his hands but with his eyes shut, then replies: ‘Fine.’
He also claims the devil made him carry out the abuse.
Despite the recording, Oluronbi denied any wrongdoing during the trial, forcing his victims to give evidence against him during nine weeks of legal proceedings.
He even laughed in the witness box while giving his own evidence.
Judge Sarah Buckingham said the real purpose of the ‘spiritual baths’ was to ‘fulfil your insatiable sexual appetite’.
Oluronbi and his wife will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
Sentencing Oluronbi on Friday, Judge Buckingham said: ‘You claimed that God was instructing you to conduct holy baths.
‘Its real purpose was to fulfil your insatiable sexual appetite.
‘The children feared you and this enabled you to continue your grip.
‘Your offending has had an extreme and severe impact on all of your complainants.
‘Any attempt to suggest otherwise would be without foundation.
‘You abused your position of trust – they trusted you like God.’
The judge continued: ‘You did this because you are an arrogant, selfish and vain man.
‘In my judgment, your offending must be one of the worst cases of sexual abuse of multiple children to come before the courts.’
One of his victims, now an adult, had come forward to help bring Oluronbi to justice.
In statements read to the court by the prosecution, one of the victims said the defendant’s actions made her ‘question if my life was worth living’.
Jurors also heard Oluronbi was linked to a Christian church in Edgbaston, Birmingham, the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, whose roots were in Nigeria.
He set up his own splinter group for about 40 adults and children, separate from the church and located at another address, where he began a practice of ‘spiritual bathing’.
The offences took place in Birmingham and London.
Phil Bradley QC, prosecuting, told the jury that the main tactic he employed was to claim that God had instructed him to administer ‘holy baths’ to some of his congregation to ‘cleanse’ them and protect them from evil influences.
He added that for some of the female victims, it ‘progressed to repeated rapes, on many occasions leading to unwanted pregnancies and terminations’.
Oluronbi’s victims described him as ‘controlling’ and ‘almost like a king’.
The offending happened over a period of 20 years, at various locations, going back to the 1980s.
Oluronbi was arrested at Birmingham Airport in May last year, while trying to leave the country for Nigeria with some of his ceremonial belongings and a sum of cash.
Police are unable to say whether he was trying to flee justice, but pointed out he had recently been confronted about the abuse by one of his victims.
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