By Zoe McKnight
Toronto Star
June 3, 2011
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/1002228--preacher-charged-with-sexual-assault?bn=1
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| Emmanuel Animodi, 45, was arrested after a woman said she was sexually assaulted at the Fire of Miracle Ministries Church on Finch Ave. W. on June 1, 2011. |
A North Toronto Pentecostal church was bolted shut Friday, the same day its pastor was scheduled to appear in a Finch Ave. courthouse charged with sexual assault.
Emmanuel Animodi, 45, a self-described “prophet” of the Fire of Miracle of Ministries Church, was charged by police after they were called to the church on Finch Ave. W. near Keele St. Wednesday.
A woman attending a prayer service alleged she was sexually assaulted there, police say.
“I can’t believe that. That guy is too good to do that,” said Tosin Ladejoh, a professional photographer who has been to the church twice and knows Animodi informally through Toronto’s Nigerian community.
“I do a lot of African events,” said Ladejoh. “He’s a very respectable man.” Ladejoh says Animodi is married and has children.
Friday, the glass door to the church at the back of a strip mall was bolted shut. Well-worn carpeted stairs led up to the second level.
Most neighbours in the strip mall, dotted with spa-massage businesses with darkened windows, an auto parts shop and an eyeglass store, didn’t know anything about the church.
But a woman working at an adjacent law office said the ministry was well-attended and sometimes the singing and “tramping” were so loud that her employer had complained to the landlord.
Animodi appeared for bail on Thursday and Friday, but is still in custody in Maplehurst Correctional Complex in Milton.
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