'MIRACLE BABIES' PREACHER CLEARED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES

Southwark News
December 22, 2014

http://www.southwarknews.co.uk/00,news,27359,185,00.htm

A controversial African preacher who claimed to be able to give infertile couples 'miracle babies' was cleared of raping a follower on Thursday.

Self-styled 'Archbishop of Peckham' Gilbert Deya, 61, vowed to continue in his mission to "preach the gospel of Jesus Christ" after the court cleared him of two counts of rape, two of sexual assault, attempted rape and assault by beating after nearly five hours of deliberations.

Deya said: "The court has today rightly ruled that I am an innocent man" after he stood accused of sexually assaulting one of his followers during an alleged campaign of abuse spanning nearly a decade.

The alleged victim came to Britain from Sierra Leone in 2003 and visited Deya's church in Peckham in 2006.

She was convinced he was the only man who could cure voices in her head that were preventing her from sleeping, jurors heard.

The first rape was said to have happened in late 2006 or early 2007 and Deya was also accused of groping the woman's daughter by groping her breasts.

Deya vehemently denied all the charges against him. A jury of eleven men and one woman cleared him of all but two counts- of anal rape - for which Judge Nic Madge had already directed not guilty verdicts at Inner London Crown Court.

The preacher, who runs Gilbert Deya Ministries - which is said to have a UK membership of 36,000- from an industrial estate in Ormside Street in Peckham, is also wanted by the Kenyan authorities over an alleged baby-snatching ring in his native Kenya.

The Kenyan government alleges he stole five children between 1999 and 2004 and Home Secretary Theresa May ruled extradition should go ahead three years ago.It is thought that the Foreign Office remain in negotiation with Kenyan authorities over Deya's extradition, after he exhausted all avenues of appeal.

After his acquittal, the preacher claimed he was now a "free man" who could not be extradited back to Kenya, and accused the Home Office of "closing their ears"to his protestations of innocence.

"They wanted to extradite me but I told them they were wrong. I cannot be commanded to return to Kenya because there is no case against me, but the Home Office blindly closed their mind," said Deya.

A Home Office spokesperson said today: "Following the Secretary of State's decision to uphold the order for Mr Deya’s extradition, his legal team made further representations. Those representations are currently being carefully considered."