Self-styled Nigerian-born prophet, Michael Oluronbi, has been sentenced to 34 years in the United Kingdom for sexually abusing children and adults for over 20 years.
Oluronbi’s wife, Juliana, was also sentenced to 11 years for aiding and abetting rape and termination of some of the pregnancies, which resulted from the assaults.
Oluronbi, 60, was convicted on Friday by Birmingham Crown Court in Central England of 15 counts of rape, seven counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual assault.
The judge, Sarah Buckingham, said the pastor engaged in “one of the worst cases of sexual abuse” against children.
During the trial, the court heard that there were at least 88 different occasions on which he raped his victims, who have now grown to become adults.
The court was also told that Oluronbi committed the offences after convincing his victims to undertake “spiritual bathing” which according to him would “cleanse” them of evil spirits.
Some of the victims, the court further heard, became pregnant while Oluronbi, a professional pharmacist, got them aborted.
Buckingham described Oluronbi as “arrogant, selfish and vain.”
She added, “You abused your trust. They (victims) trusted you like God…In my judgement, your offence must be one of the worst cases of sexual abuse of multiple children to come before the court.”
Oluronbi, who was linked Cherubim and Seraphim Church, reportedly said the devil pushed him to commit the offences in London and Buckingham in the 1980s.
He allegedly established a splinter group of the church where he committed the offences.