Pastor Paul Hanniford, Fifty-five-year-old of Kingston has been convicted in the Home Circuit Court for having sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl.
The trial which was held in camera saw testimonies from the victim and her younger brother who witnessed the ordeal.
Prosecutors led evidence that Hanniford, the pastor of a Pentecostal City Mission Church, took the two children to his house under the pretence that they were going for a “drive out”.
According to reports, after arriving at the pastors house he 13-year-old girl indicated that she wanted to use the bathroom and Hanniford accompanied her.
He later removed her from the bathroom, took her to a bedroom and assaulted her.
The prosecution stated that the five-year-old boy on hearing his sister crying, rushed to the room and saw the pastor assaulting his sister.
Hanniford later returned the children to their mother at his church.
Upon seeing his mother, the boy made several attempts to tell her about the attack in the presence of the pastor but was shut down by the minister.
On the boy’s fourth attempt, however, he blurted out an account of what happened.
The following day, the mother repeated what she had heard to the church elders.
Dissatisfied with their response, she took the matter to the police and Hanniford was later arrested and charged.
