Jailed pastor in fresh HIV scandal

Barely a day after receiving a 25-year jail-term for sodomy and infecting a 14- year-old boy with HIV, credible information reaching DAILY GUIDE indicates that Pastor Prince Mark Amoah, the Spiritual Head of the New Jerusalem Religion in Tema, has been mentioned in another sodomy and HIV case.

Prince Mark alias Marvin Brown, according to information gathered by this paper, was arrested about two years ago by officials of the Tema Regional Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) after several months of hiding.

He was said to have visited the home of his victim where he introduced himself as a friend to the parents of the boy believed to have been his first victim.

The boy’s parents gave their blessings to Prince Mark’s friendship because they were not aware that he was the one who had been sodomizing their son.

Based on the go-ahead given by the boy’s parents, Prince Mark asked the boy to visit him regularly in his house.

However, after several months of observation and interrogations by the boy’s parents following his strange manner of walking, he openly spoke about how he had been sodomised on several occasions by the ‘man of God’.

It was after this revelation that the parents quickly lodged a complaint with the Tema Regional DOVVSU.

They were given a police medical form to send the boy to the hospital and the result later confirmed the boy’s HIV status as positive.

Several attempts to arrest the pastor failed until his mother reported him to DOVVSU after he had domestic issues with her.

He was immediately arrested and cautioned over the earlier complaint which was lodged against him by the parents of the boy he sodomised.

He reportedly admitted the offence in the presence of the complainant, who was invited by DOVVSU at the time.

“He was later released under bizarre circumstances by the DOVVSU officials and nothing was heard about that case until his recent arrest over the 14-year-old boy,” the source remarked.

DAILY GUIDE gathered that his release baffled many people as it was still not clear what compelled the authorities of the Tema Regional DOVVSU to take that action, more especially when defilement was not a bailable offence.

Strangely enough, Prince Mark was let off the hook without being made to go through medical test to ascertain his HIV status.

It was believed that if he had been prosecuted in the first sodomy case, the second victim might not have been in the situation he has found himself.

The Spiritual Head of the New Jerusalem Religion finally pleaded guilty to the two charges preferred against him over his current victim, when he appeared before the Tema Circuit Court ‘A’ presided over by Ms Lydia Osei Marfo.

Pastor Mark on Thursday was slapped with a 25-year jail-term with hard labour for defiling and infecting the 14- year-old boy with the deadly HIV disease.

The court further asked the self-styled man of God to pay the sum of GH¢15,000 to the family of the 14-year-old boy as a reparation package for his medical care.