On Wednesday, the Guyana Court of Appeal upheld a pastor’s conviction for raping a minor but decreased his sentence.
In 2016 a court convicted Berbice pastor Andrew Hannibale of raping a 15-year-old girl.
But local media reported that the Appeal Court lowered his sentence from 40 years to 25 when he claimed it was excessive.
Yonette Cummings-Edwards, acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, who presided over the court’s proceedings with Justices Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud, told the defendant that in addition to his reduced 25-year sentence, he must serve 18 years before being eligible for parole.
Investigators had charged Hannibale with rape committed in the County of Berbice during the latter part of January 2016.
According to the facts, the virtual complainant’s sibling awoke and found that the 15-year-old was not in her bed.
The teenager, a member of Hannibale’s church, later acknowledged that she was with the pastor.
And a doctor who evaluated her found evidence of sexual abuse.
Shortly before his original sentencing, the accused pastor said he was sorry for his actions.
” I want to say to the victim and family how sorry I am. I know you are hurt. I pray you forgive me, as you go on with your life,” local media quoted him as saying.
“I will abide by the jury decision. All I ask for is leniency, so I can serve the time and resume back to society as a brand new man,” Hannibale told the court.
Those so call pastors need to spend life in prison for their crimes…He preaches “Thou shalt not commit adultery”
Who can we trust????
Clearly God did not call you to pastor. For if he did your pedophile spirit would have gone out the window. When God calls he also delivers and who the son sets free is free indeed.
As a Pastor I know this to be true. When you maintain your focus on God and what pleases him nothing else matters. When you study the word of God you will grow both in the natural and in the spirit man.
If you truly and sincerely repent along with deliverance and change in your heart for good, you will be forgiven.
However, choices have consequences and therefore you will reap as you has sowed…do your time for no one is above the law.
I pray for healing for the victim …,…wow