A cleric has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping the daughter of a church member. Chris Douglas, 63, was accused of drugging and raping a teenage girl in Lagos, Nigeria.
He was in court on six counts of defilement and sexual assault and three counts of rape, including raping the girl in a hotel on multiple occasions. His family often turned to Douglas, General Overseer of the Peculiar Generation Assembly Church, for spiritual guidance. “I trusted him like a spiritual father. I never thought he could do this to me,” the victim said in court. She suffered severe psychological trauma and depression, with “recurrent suicidal thoughts as a direct result” of the rapes. When his mother found out what happened, she went to confront Douglas: “When I went to his church, he cried and said it was the devil’s work. He begged us in front of the elders.” The rape was reported to police, health workers, and a human rights organization.
Justice Rahman Oshodi said Douglas abused his position of authority and trust to exploit the teenager. He said: “The convict held a position of spiritual authority and was regarded as a father figure by the victim and her family. Instead of protecting that trust, (Douglas) betrayed it in the most reprehensible way.”
The prosecution, led by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Dr. Badajide Martins, called five witnesses, including the victim, her mother and a doctor.
Douglas denied the allegations and told the court that the relationship was consensual. Justice Oshodi rejected this and said the evidence showed rape beyond reasonable doubt.
The court found that it was not sufficiently proven that some of the alleged incidents occurred before 2018, when the teenager was under 18.
Chris Douglas was sentenced to life imprisonment on three counts of rape, while six counts of defilement and sexual assault were dismissed. His name has also been recorded in the Lagos State Sex Offenders Register.
The judge said, “The law must protect the vulnerable, and this court will not hesitate to punish abuses of trust in the harshest terms possible.”
