Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Achiase, Eastern Region, Ghana · 2011

Ghana: prayer-camp pastor jailed twenty years for raping five sisters, one drugged unconscious

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

head pastor, Jesus Faith Tabernacle Church prayer camp, Achiase

Organization

Jesus Faith Tabernacle Church, Achiase, Eastern Region

Spiritual nexus

The victims were brought to Nkansah's prayer camp as a pastor with claimed power to remove curses and deliver them from spirits; that claimed authority was the means by which he isolated and drugged at least one of them before raping her.

  • Exorcism or deliverance
  • Curse or witchcraft threat
  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2011-08-31 · conviction and sentence

    Akyem Swedru Circuit Court, Eastern Region, Ghana. Pastor Yaw Nkansah, head pastor of the Jesus Faith Tabernacle Church prayer camp at Achiase, pleaded guilty with explanation to defilement of a 15-year-old member of his congregation, the youngest of five sisters he was found to have raped. The court heard he told her the devil had cast a 'prostitution spell' on her, took her to a hill to be ritually bathed, then to his room where he poured a powder on her that caused her to lose consciousness before raping her. He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment with hard labour.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • claimed power to deliver a congregant from a curse ('prostitution spell') via a ritual bathing and prayer session
  • incapacitated a victim with powder before assaulting her

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report Modern Ghana, 'Pastor Jailed 20 Years For Raping 5 Sisters' (2011).

Reports the conviction, sentence, court, judge's statement, and the 'prostitution spell' / ritual-bathing mechanism.

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report MyJoyOnline, 'Pastor jailed 20 years for raping five sisters' (2011).

Independent confirmation of the conviction and sentence.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases