Worship leader suspected of grooming young girls
A CHATSWORTH pastor has broken his silence about the arrest of his church’s youth and worship leader for the alleged rape of a teenage girl who he was teaching music.
The 31-year-old man, who is also a guitarist at the Bayview church, made his first appearance in the Chatsworth Magistrate’s Court last week. He is expected to make a formal bail application on Friday.
The Hawks KZN tracking team, the metro police task team and the Chatsworth SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit arrested the man at his Westcliff home last Thursday.
Police seized several laptops, cellphones, lingerie, sex toys and sexual enhancer tablets from the man’s home.
A police source said the man could face further charges as it had been alleged he was a “sex pest who had been grooming young girls”.
The pastor of the church told the POST yesterday (Tuesday) that the alleged rape took place on January 20.
He said the accused was a co-ordinator of the worship team, and not an ordained pastor.
“He would teach children how to play instruments in the church. He was monitored by the seniors in the church and had conducted himself properly and respectfully in this role,” said the pastor.
“On the day of the alleged incident, the children in the band had been practising at church. They have never been left unsupervised or alone with the accused. Most times, their parents stayed with them for the practice.
“But on January 20, the victim’s mother said she had allowed her daughter
to go to the worship leader’s home after the practice session. She said he had invited the girl to his home for a meal.”
The pastor said it had been alleged that the accused had sexually molested the girl in his vehicle and at his home, on that day.
It’s alleged that a 12-year-old girl who was a back-up singer in the church band, was also sexually assaulted the same day. She was with the other victim at the accused’s house.
The pastor said he was concerned that the 12-year-old had not given her statement to police as yet.
“I found out about the incident from the girl’s mother last week, after the girl had told her what happened. I then met with the congregation and discussed the seriousness of the allegations with them.
“I advised parents to question their children and find out if anything similar had happened to them. I asked them to give me information so I could pass it on to the investigating officer. To date, none of them have come back to me,” he said.
The pastor said he was “disturbed” by the allegations.
“Unfortunately, in the Indian community there is stigma to rape. Sadly, judgement from society on any sexual assault matters is prevalent.
“This may be the reason why the others have not come forward. But they don’t realise that they are shielding the perpetrators of such crimes if they don’t speak out,” he said.
He said the accused joined the church in 2017 and became the leader of the praise and worship team in 2019, after he displayed good leadership skills and became a role model for the youngsters at the church.
“Even the elders looked up to him and his wife. They were proud of them. Two years ago, I was the pastor who married him and his wife. His wife was a singer in the band,” he said.
The pastor said the church was saddened that they were in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
“We never thought a case of this nature would come from a dedicated, vibrant, witty man who showed great leadership skills.
“At his evaluation, when we considered him for the job of worship and youth leader, there were no signs of anything suspicious about him. We did the checks and ticked all the boxes before we gave him the responsibility. I had trusted him,” he added.
He said the church leadership had asked the accused and the victims’ families to refrain from attending services until the investigation and court findings were finalised.
He said this was to avoid unnecessary tension in the church.
“We have offered the (rape) victim and her family spiritual counselling, but they declined saying they ‘wanted to ‘lie low’.Maybe the hurt is too deep right now, but we will be here to support the victim and her family. We will be in court on Friday,” he said.
Reverend Cyril Pillay, chairperson of the Chatsworth Spiritual Crime Prevention Forum, said: “Society must do everything in its power to ensure the safety of all children. We commend the specialised investigators from the Chatsworth FCS Unit, who expedited the investigation to bring the alleged perpetrator before the criminal justice system, thus ensuring that the victims’ voices can be heard with justice to follow.”
He added that there had been a social and religious outcry from men of the cloth whose spiritual calling had become questionable by tainted comments on social media platforms.