Sodomy Pastor For HIV Test

A Tema Circuit Court has ordered that an HIV test conducted on the founder and Spiritual Head of the New Jerusalem Religion, Pastor Marvin Brown alias Prince Mark, to determine his status regarding the disease. The Circuit Court B, presided over by Bart Plange-Brew, gave the order following a complaint lodged with the Tema Regional Domestic Violence and Support Unit (DOVVSU) by the father of a 14-year-old boy who was sodomised by the 32-year-old pastor. The pastor was arrested and subsequently arraigned before the court, which did not hesitate to give the order yesterday. The test is expected to be carried out before August 19, 2013- the date set for hearing to commence, to help resolve the dispute surrounding how the 14-year-old victim got infected with the deadly disease. Granting an application by prosecution to have the pastor tested for HIV, the court ordered that the test be carried out at a government hospital and the result made available to the court before the next adjourned date. Pastor Mark pleaded not guilty to the charge of defilement yesterday when he appeared before the court. His council, Adomako Acheampong, prayed the court to grant his client bail, explaining that the pastor had denied committing the offence. Council argued that the police could have done the test before arraigning the suspect before the court. Several persons, including some young men numbering about 10, believed to be members of his church or a relation, were seen at the court premises, with some of them crowded outside. As if to prevent a lot of people from seeing the pastor, a few of the young men later directed a red car closer to the entrance of the court where they hurriedly shepherded the pastor into it together with a detective handling the case and drove out of the court premises. Pastor Prince Mark, who was denied police bail last Friday, was arrested by police on Thursday August 1, 2013 for having carnal knowledge of a 14-year-old on five separate occasions in his house at Tema, resulting in the boy acquiring the deadly HIV. Thirty-two-year-old Prince Mark, who is said to be popular in Tema with quite a sizeable following, was arrested after the father of the victim reported the incident to the police. During police interrogation shortly after his arrest, the pastor admitted sodomising his victim, not five times as mentioned to the police by the victim himself and his father, but once. He reportedly warned the boy not to disclose the shameful act to his parent and was further reported to have told the boy that he and his parents would die if he ever disclosed the matter to them. Perhaps scared that something terrible might befall his family, the 14-year-old- reportedly kept the ordeal to himself until he started falling sick on his return home from Prince Mark�s house, after a brief stay with him. His troubled parents took him to a medical facility in Tema where after a medical test, the boy was detected to have been infected with HIV. He then allegedly revealed to his parents how Pastor Prince Mark sodomised him on five occasions during his stay with him. The pastor is alleged to have asked the father of the boy to allow his son to stay with him when school vacated. The father readily agreed since he had become friends with the pastor after joining the New Jerusalem Religion church founded by the beleaguered man of God. The victim�s father, shocked after discovering what the pastor had done to his son, quickly reported him to the police.