Pastor gets 20 years for raping girl
(Flashback) Josiah Baptiste after he was sentenced to 18 years at the High Court
(Flashback) Josiah Baptiste after he was sentenced to 18 years at the High Court

-will serve 18 because of ‘unblemished record’

PASTOR Josiah Baptiste, 37, amidst a packed courtroom was on Tuesday morning sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for carnally knowing a girl under the age of 15, but he will spend only 18 years because of his “unblemished record,” Justice Jo-Ann Barlow ruled following a probation report in the High Court.

The judge told the court before handing down the sentence that after listening to the evidence presented in court, the virtual complainant and her brother both testified that he was guilty of the sexual offence. She added that Baptiste was left in care of his wife’s relative who was six-years-old at the time and he betrayed that trust by his actions on the day in question.

Justice Barlow said that the incident has fractured the relationship since the pastor’s wife took his side and not the child’s. The judge urged Baptiste to continue counselling men who have similarly been convicted of sexual offences. In response, Justice Barlow asked Baptiste if he had anything to say and he replied in the negative.

In her plea of mitigation, Attorney-at-law Folio Richards told the court that Baptiste had no previous convictions and is the father of six with his youngest child being one-month-old.
Richards however, asked the court for an opportunity for Baptiste to continue to make contributions to the lives of his children and his conduct has been good to his family and played an active role in his church.

She noted that his wife is now a single parent tasked with providing for their children and asked the court to exercise leniency in sentencing, since he had an unblemished record.
After the sentencing, the smiling pastor was whisked away to jail while his family members lingered at the High Court for some time to digest the proceedings.

Probation Report
Senior Probation and Welfare Officer Deborah Joseph, told the court that Baptiste had grown up in a stable home with six siblings in the Meadow Brook Squatting Area, Georgetown, until his parents separated and he moved out. At age 15, he realised he was not academically inclined and exited the school system and began working. He had a donkey cart business which he used to supply water to residents in the community where he resided, the officer related.
Joseph said the accused is on his third marriage and started preaching at the Love and Faith Church in Sophia, then moved to Soesdyke and Timehri then re-settled in Sophia.
She noted that at the time of the incident, Baptiste was left in charge of the child, who was six years old and her siblings while the child’s mother was at work as a security guard.

Joseph added that on the day in question, the accused took the child in a bedroom and he placed her on top of himself and put his penis into her. The virtual complainant, who is now 16 years old, said it hurt so much she begged the pastor to stop and it was then her brother peeped over the bedroom wall and saw what he was doing to his sister, who was crying out for help and told the accused that he would make his father kill him. It was only then, Joseph said,that the pastor let the child go; but she was bleeding heavily and the matter was reported to the Child Care and Protection Agency after the pastor had denied the act when confronted by the child’s father.

The child and her brother suffered abuse from the wife of the pastor after the incident which caused them to relocate. Joseph said the effects of that incident has left the virtual complainant very tramautised and to date she is still struggling to remain focused, although in exams mode.

She stated that the accused has shown no remorse for his actions which took away the innocence and childhood of a six-year-old child and continues to declare his innocence. A total of 10 witnesses was called to testify in the matter before a 12-member jury. The pastor was represented by attorney-at-law Maxwell McKay and Folio Richards, while the state prosecutors are Shawnette Austin and Tameika Clarke.

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