Schoolgirl Alleges Sex Abuse by Church Leader

Herald Scotland
April 23, 2015

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/schoolgirl-alleges-sex-abuse-by-church-leader.123981767

A SCHOOLGIRL has described how a church leader accused of sexually assaulting her, told her he was trying to rid her of demons.

The 16-year-old woman told Falkirk Sheriff Court yesterday (wed) that Walter Masocha put his hand down her trousers in a games room of his house near Stirling.

Mr Masocha, 51, was the Archbishop of the Stirling-based Agape for All Nations Church and a man she said she regarded as a "The Prophet" and "The High Commissioner" of the church. The teenager added she knew him as her "spiritual father", and called him "dad".

She said in late 2013 she was with four other girls in the upstairs games room when Mr Masocha came in.

Giving evidence by video link, she said she had been wearing "stretchy trousers".

She said: "Walter Masocha called me over. He didn't verbally say it, he just waved me over. I went to stand next to him.

"He placed his hand round my lower back, and moved his hand down until he got to my underwear, and he sort of pinged my underwear.

"He repeatedly pinged my underwear, ran his hand down my bottom, and grabbed and pinched my bottom.

"He was pinging my underwear, pulling it and letting go, pulling it and letting go.

"He used his thumb and his index finger and pinched my bottom, a grab going into a pinch."

Asked how the incident made her feel, the girl said: "I felt quite violated, like, why is he touching my bum? There's a limit, a biological father wouldn't do that, why would a spiritual father. I felt like I'd done something wrong."

She added: "None of the other girls in the room knew what was happening, they thought he was just standing next to me with his arm around me.

"He was just smiling."

She said she later texted Mr Masocha and asked him why he had done it, and he texted back that he would tell her in person.

As a result she saw him at the house a few days later.

She said: "He said that he did it because he saw some demons and things that shouldn't be there and he was clearing them away. I just broke into tears because I thought I had been doing things wrong without realising them."

Mr Masocha denies three sexual assault and the trial before Sheriff Kenneth McGowan continues.