POPULAR CHITUNGWIZA PASTOR RAPES CONGREGANT (AGED 14) THEN PRAYS FOR HER AND GIVES HER MORNING-AFTER PILLS

A pastor at Tabernacle of Power Ministries in Chitungwiza is facing accusations of raping a 14-year-old member of the church.

The 36-year-old Tendai Tinodiwanashe Mashongashika, popularly known as Prophet Tino, was recently arraigned before Chitungwiza Magistrate’s Court for allegedly raping the teenage congregant.

Allegations are that on January, 12, this year, the complainant attended a church service at number 2043 Unit A, Chitungwiza.

The church service was held at Pastor Tino’s home.

It is alleged that after the church service, the youth chair lady ordered the teenage girl to remain behind and arrange the chairs.

At some point, Pastor Tino is alleged to have grabbed the girl’s hand using force and raped her once in his bedroom.

After the act, he allegedly gave the young girl a cloth to clean the blood and accompanied her to her grandmother’s house.

He prayed for her before he left the place.

The teenage girl did not disclose the case.

According to her statement, she was merely following the orders of her pastor who had told her not to tell anyone about the rape.

“He told me that even if I tell anyone about the act nobody will believe me because he is a pastor,” she said in her statement.

On January 13, at around 6 am, Pastor Tino is said to have met the complainant and given her some morning-after pills and given her instructions about how to use them.

The rape came to light on January 30 whe her grandmother used her cell phone and found some WhatsApp messages between her grandchild and her pastor in which he was proposing love to the teenage girl.

The grandmother also found that she had been enquiring about morning-after pills and how an abortion could be carried out.

She asked her grand daughter about all this but she did not reveal the rape incident.

She alerted her aunt and the teenage girl then revealed to her the abuse she had suffered at the hands of Pastor Tino.

A medical report was produced in court as evidence. *_-H-Metro_*