Documentary record Bound by Fear
← Explore all cases
Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Kingston, Jamaica · 2017

Jamaica: pastor sentenced to 20 years for raping a thirteen-year-old baptised member of his church

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor of a Pentecostal congregation

Organization

Pentecostal City Mission Church

Spiritual nexus

The complainant was a baptised, active member of the defendant's own congregation — squarely inside the faith relationship, and it was his pastoral standing that let him take her from her family.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2017-03-09 · conviction at trial and sentence

    Home Circuit Court, Kingston, Jamaica (Justice Lorna Shelly Williams). Paul Hanniford, pastor of a Pentecostal City Mission congregation, was convicted on 24 January 2017 of sexual intercourse with a minor and sentenced to 20 years. He had taken a 13-year-old baptised member of his church and her five-year-old brother to his home on the pretext of a drive, and assaulted her in the bathroom; the younger brother witnessed part of the incident and reported it.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • pastoral authority over a baptised child member
  • instruction that the assault be kept 'their secret'

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Pastor gets 20 years for sex with minor', Jamaica Observer, 9 Mar. 2017.

Jamaican paper of record reporting the conviction, the 20-year sentence, and the victim's status as a baptised member of the congregation.

Related record

Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts

← Explore all cases