A pastor in Zimbabwe has been sentenced to spend the next half century in prison after he was found guilty of raping 4 female members of his congregation. Robert Martin Gumbura, the spiritual leader of the “Robert Martin Gumbura Independent End Time Message Church”, is said to have claimed that all female members of his church were his wives.
Gumbura, who has 11 wives and 30 children, had 10 years taken off his sentence because it was his first conviction.
The Times reports:
The court heard that Gumbura, 57, claimed that all female members of his church were his wives by right, and married women were on loan from their husbands.
“You were a real wolf in sheepskin,” said magistrate Hoseah Mujaya. The core business of any church is worshipping and not sleeping with girls and women and threaten them that misfortune will befall them.”
The rapes are said to have occurred more than a decade ago. The pastor, who has 11 wives and 30 children, had wanted to sire 100 children.
His conviction included a four-month term for a separate charge of possession of pornographic videos.In his defence, Gumbura stated the DVDs were private recordings with his wives.
Cases of church leaders abusing women are common in Zimbabwe. Last month a leader of an apostolic sect made news after it was revealed that he had impregnated 13 women in one month.
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