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Pastor walks free on charge of allegedly raping church sister
…as magistrate upholds no-case submission
Kaieteur News – Collin Samuels also known as “Pastor Sammy” of the People’s Restoration Ministries located on the Essequibo Coast, Region Two, was on Tuesday freed of a charge which alleged that he raped a female member of the said church.
Colin Samuels
Samuels was charged last August for the indictable offence. The pastor was not required to plead to the charge which stated that on April 2, 2022, at the People’s Restoration Ministries located at Richmond Public Road, in the Essequibo, he engaged in sexual penetration with a woman without her consent, or reasonably believing that the woman consented.
The matter was heard at the Anna Regina Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Ester Sam. Samuels was represented by Attorney-at-Law Bernard DaSilva. The preliminary inquiry (PI) into the rape matter was done as a paper committal. DaSilva made a no-case submission to the court highlighting several irregularities with the victim’s statement to the police and also pointed out that the prosecution failed to discharge its burden of proof, in support of the elements of the charge of rape. Adding that while his client has nothing to prove; the defence has offered sufficient evidence to dispel the evidence of rape.
On Tuesday, Magistrate Sam upheld DaSilva’s no-case submission and the matter was discharged against Samuels. According to reports, the alleged victim had reported that she was raped in the pastor’s office after a deliverance service. It was stated that the pastor had reportedly drugged her by giving her a glass of wine, thereafter raping her.
According to the no-case submission document seen by this publication, the lawyer highlighted that the woman’s statement dated May 9, 2022, in brief states that after deliverance service was finished, she and other members of the church ‘stay back’ and clean’ the church building. It was further stated that the woman said that: ‘’ pastor (Colin would not always be on the coast, so whenever he returns, me being the senior assistant, I would have to update him, as to what went on in his absence. So, on the 2nd of April, 2022, after we finished cleaning up the building, I went to pastor (Colin) office which is a room in the said building to give him an update and Pastor (Colin) was in his office…”
The defence stated that while his client had nothing to prove as the burden falls on the prosecution to prove guilt, he offers an alibi. Firstly, it was stated that the pastor was not on the Essequibo Coast on the date the woman stated the incident occurred. It was noted that the woman then reported the matter more than a month later and also did not provide the names of the other church members who were there that day when the incident allegedly occurred. The lawyer submitted too that while it is alleged that the pastor drugged the woman after giving her wine, the police submitted no evidence of any wine found in the church that was contaminated with any drug.
Moreover, it was stated in the court document that on April 17, 2022, the woman reportedly confessed to the pastor’s wife that, she and the pastor were in a relationship for the past two years. She also reportedly complained that, the pastor was seeing another female and was reportedly in possession of text messages and nude pictures of the pastor at that time in her phone. It was further stated that it is not by coincidence that, it was after the woman was served with a letter dated May 6, 2022, where her membership was revoked, and she was ejected from the church that; she made the report of rape. Inter alia, the lawyer also submitted text messages which purportedly showed the woman threatening the pastor to get his wife’s phone number and send their text messages to her.
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