American pastor remanded on porn charges

During the day, he was a man of God, preaching the good news to his flock. But at night, he turned into somebody else, engaging in sex orgies and recording them for commercial distribution.

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This is the picture that police painted of a 50-year-old American evangelist who was on Wednesday charged with possessing pornographic material.

A compact disk

Mr Thomas Kevin Manton of Dominion International, a church that operates from a Nairobi hotel, was denied bail and remanded in custody until Friday for the police to complete their investigations.

The evangelist was arraigned before Kibera senior resident magistrate Cosmas Maundu and denied the charge. The prosecutor, Mr Joseph Musyoka, told the court that on February 25, this year at Runda Estate in Nairobi, he made or produced an obscene publication — a compact disc — tending to corrupt morals.

He did this for the purpose of trade or for the purpose of distribution or public exhibition, the police alleged. Mr Musyoka told the court that the evangelist, who came into the country in 2007, might face more serious charges after completion of investigations.

Immediately the charges were read to the accused, his lawyer, Mr Charles Agwara, asked the court to release him on bail. The lawyer told the court that they would prove that there was a scheme to extort money from the accused. But Mr Musyoka protested against the allegations.

“These are serious allegations. We don’t know whether the allegations are true,” the prosecutor said. He objected to the accused being released on bail saying the police had not completed investigations.

“The accused was arrested on June 23, 2009 and the police have not completed their investigations. We pray that the accused be remanded in police custody to enable the investigating officer to finalise his inquiries,” Mr Musyoka said.

The prosecutor added that the defence lawyer had made serious allegations that certain people were out to extort money from the preacher, but the claims had not been proved. Mr Agwara opposed the application by the prosecution saying it was not the first time for the evangelist to be arrested by the police.

Earlier, he said, his client was arrested and held at Jamhuri police post. “I have been attending Kilimani Police Station for the last one month. The police said they were waiting for witnesses to record statements,” Mr Agwara said.

Added the lawyer: “One month is a fair time to complete investigations. When he was arrested and locked up at Jamhuri police post, he was released after paying some money. We had even complained to the Commissioner of Police about the case.’’

He said that the application to have the accused remanded for three days so that police could complete their investigations lacked merit. “The prosecution has not tendered any evidence for the accused to be remanded for three days,” the defence lawyer told the court.

But Mr Musyoka said that they had several documents they intended to investigate because they had pornographic content. He urged the court to remand the accused saying the police did not arrest the preacher out of malice. The magistrate agreed with him and remanded the evangelist.