Michael Oluronbi,a pastor, was jailed for 34 years in Britain on Friday March
6,2020, after he was convicted for serial rape and abuse of children and
adults over two decades.
Oluronbi,
60, who is originally from Nigeria, was convicted of 15 counts of rape,
seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of s#xual assault at a
trial that ended in January.
The court was told there were at least 88 separate occasions on which he raped his victims, who are now adults.
Some
offences were carried out after he convinced some of his victims to
take part in “spiritual bathing”, which he said would “cleanse” them of
evil spirits.
Birmingham Crown Court in central England was told
some of his young female victims became pregnant several times
but Oluronbi, a trained pharmacist, took them to abortion clinics to
hide his crimes.
The minister’s wife, Juliana, 58, was jailed for
11 years after she was found guilty of three charges of aiding and
abetting rape after helping arrange some of the terminations.
Judge
Sarah Buckingham called Oluronbi “arrogant, selfish and vain”, adding:
“You abused your position of trust.They (his victims) trusted you like
God…. In my judgment, your offending must be one of the worst cases of
se#xual abuse of multiple children to come before the courts.”
Oluronbi,
described by his victims as “controlling”, was arrested when one of
those he abused came forward. He was detained by police last year at
Birmingham airport on his way to Nigeria.
When asked about the
offences, which took place in Birmingham and London dating back to the
1980s, the court was told he said: “The devil made me do it.”
Oluronbi was linked to a Birmingham branch of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, which was founded in Nigeria.
He
set up a splinter group separate from the church and at another address
for about 40 adults and children, where he began his practice of
“spiritual bathing”, jurors heard.
