Shame as preacher abuses women who worship him and hands out flannels soaked in his sweat

A shamed preacher who abused women who worshipped him as the leader of a cult-like church gave followers flannels soaked in his sweat.

Walter Masocha, 51, founder of Agape for All Nations Church, surrounded himself with women he called Daddy’s Dancing Girls.

Zimbabwe-born Masocha, regularly invited women worshippers to private “surgeries” held in his bedroom but banned their husbands from attending, the Daily Record reported.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard that he groped a deaconess while he was supposed to be praying for her stomach complaint and put his hand down a schoolgirl’s trousers saying he was trying to remove demons.

When the 32-year-old victim told her husband, also a member of the church, he said: “The prophet is seeing something in your genitals that needs to be removed, so he was removing that.”

Church members later tried to have her sectioned.

One churchgoer, who is still a member of Agape, based in Stirling, Scotland, said: “He was obviously behaving inappropriately.

“People made the suggestion that we get the Association of Christian Counsellors involved but that was ignored.

“Masocha didn’t want that because he wouldn’t be able to get away with what he was doing.

“There were women flocking around him all the time, they worshipped him.

“People travelled from all over the UK to see him. Often there were women in sleeping bags on his living room floor as they waited for an appointment with him.

“It caused divisions between many married couples, because he would see the wives in his bedroom and not let the husbands in.

“He’d gain their trust and shut out their husbands.

“He liked to be called Daddy or Baba, the females all called him that. Nobody called him Walter, that would have been seen as disrespectful.”

The church has worshippers from all over the UK but the Stirling congregation was seen as its lynchpin.

At church services, women would lay down at his feet, as he performed a so-called “deliverance” ritual by touching their heads.

One witness said: “The women were literally at his feet. They were known as Daddy’s Dancing Girls.

“It wasn’t healthy, they thought he was anointed.

“He encouraged this. The speakers who recommended he be made an apostle at the conference were organised by him.

“It was all ego. He would take advantage of vulnerable people who wanted support.

“He gave out the flannels he used to wipe his brow with as gifts.

“These people were in a bad place psychologically so it was easy for him to have control over them.”

Former Stirling University lecturer Masocha, who was paid by the church, has also been accused of putting pressure on his followers to part with their cash.

The church member told us: “Soon after the church was set up, Dr Masocha gave up his post at the university.

“It meant that the members had to support him financially which was a big burden for us all. People were encouraged to give as much as they could.

“I know people who gave donations of more than £1000.”

In April, a jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court convicted Masocha of sexually assaulting the deaconess and sexually touching the teen.

He had earlier been cleared of two other charges, including one of sexual behaviour with a 13-year-old girl.

He is due to be sentenced on Tuesday for the incidents which happened between January 2008 and December 2010. “Everybody would buy him food and prepare it, but nobody could eat until he had prayed for it.