Minors' chilling stories as pastor gets 50 years in jail for defilement

German national Thomas Scheller, 71, was jailed for 81 years for defilement, pornography and human trafficking. [Silas Otieno, Standard]

A local pastor and a German have been jailed for 130 years for defilement.

James Njuguna Kuria, who used the name of God to prey on minors, and Thomas Scheller, a 71-year-old paedophile, were on Tuesday found guilty by a Milimani court.

Their stories are different, their crimes committed at different times, but their fate and sins were similar.

Scheller was also found guilty of human trafficking.

The court ordered Njuguna to spend 50 years behind bars, while Scheller will leave jail aged 152 years if God keeps him alive.

The magistrate, Caroline Njagi, jailed the German for 81 years after convicting him of three counts of human trafficking, two counts of committing indecent acts with minors, and three counts of minors’ pornography.

Njuguna’s ugly story cannot be complete without the voice of the teens he defiled.

One of them told the court that religion has no meaning and she sees the shepherds of Christ’s flock as fraudsters, sex pests, and deceivers of souls who prey on the innocent and the poor.

When Njuguna, whose name is now listed in the black book for sex offenders recently launched by Chief Justice Martha Koome, defiled boys for the first time, he told the innocent victims that the fluid was the blood of Jesus entering and cleansing them.

When he defiled girls who attended his church in Bondeni, Kajiado, he claimed that he intended to build a covenant with them. After he was done with his heinous act, he would tell them that that was oil from God.

Njuguna would have gotten away with the wicked behaviour were it not for one of his victims getting pregnant. 

James Njuguna Kuria. He is to spend 50 years behind bars. [Silas Otieno, Standard]

Now 23 years and a mother of a nine-year-old son, the woman told the court that she has no motherly connection with the boy as he is a constant reminder of what Njuguna did.

She narrated that it is difficult to trust anyone as the pastor also sodomised her brother.

When Njuguna discovered that she was pregnant, he bought her drugs claiming that she had worms and demons inside her body.

Another victim testified how a friend invited her to Njuguna’s church known as First Born of the Holy Spirit. 

One Sunday, she went to the church without her friend. After the service, she remained for dance practice with other children. There were about five kids on that day, she recalled.

Njuguna sent them to take drums to the store. Inside the storeroom was a curtain dividing it into two. The man asked the kids to go to different parts and gave them “anointing oil” to drink and apply some on their faces.

He asked them to repeat the Lord’s prayer and asked girls to remove their clothes and sleep on the bed as he was to make a covenant with them. 

He then defiled them, one after another. When he was done, he threatened them not to ever tell anyone. He then called the boys and ordered them to defile the girls.

The following Sunday, he pulled a laptop, placed it on the table in the church and told them to watch pornographic content. Thereafter, he ordered that they do exactly what they had seen.

Njuguna then took olive oil and instructed them to drink it and apply on their faces.

The man then asked them to recite the Lord’s prayer seven times. As they prayed, he was sodomising the boys and then defiled the three girls who were with him.

He would, again, ask the boys to defile the girls.

A 17-year-old boy said he is still traumatised.

He told the court that during a school holiday, Njuguna invited him alongside other two boys to his house. They took a shower, ate dinner and slept in one of the bedrooms.

The perverted pastors who defiled minors in God's name were jailed for 130 years. [iStockphoto]

The following day, Njuguna’s wife left for work. It is then that he came in, blindfolded the boy and defiled him. He told him that his private parts carried oil from God.

When school was about to resume, the man summoned the victim again and repeated the unthinkable act in the name of God. 

He assaulted the boy whenever he cried and told him alongside his two friends that it was the blood of Jesus entering and cleansing them whenever he defiled them.

Another victim testified that Njuguna would make them have oral sex with him at night, and then defile them during the day.

A medical doctor confirmed that the minor was defiled.

Yet another victim recalled how Njuguna sent her Sh10,000 to buy her silence.

She described the convict as a manipulative and arrogant person, adding that it was unfortunate that her children had to go through animosity in the hands of a person who ought to have defended and cared for them.

She also denied being in a relationship with Njuguna.

The convict, the court heard, had boasted that he would buy a letter indicating that he was insane to escape sentencing.

Njuguna had denied the first DNA results that confirmed him 99.9 per cent to be the father of the infant. A second one was done and the results turned positive again, sealing his fate.

The convict faced two counts of defilement and two counts of committing indecent acts with minors between December 2014 and January 7, 2015.