A Birmingham Crown Court jury has found a Nigerian pastor guilty of numerous charges of rape and abortion.
Michael Oluronbi, a self-styled prophet who also worked as a pharmacist, abused seven victims over 20 years.
His wife, Juliana Oluronbi, arranged abortions for four girls, with one girl estimating she had five or six during secondary school.
The court heard that Mr Oluronbi ran a splinter group to the Cherubim and Seraphim Church at a private home in Birmingham where he held “spiritual baths” for people in an upstairs bathroom, a pretext for sexual abuse.
Police said he had ‘a hold over the congregation’ such that anything he said was taken to be true.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said those abused fell under the “influence and authority the defendants held and honestly believed their actions were on God’s behalf”.
The prosecution said the abuse of one boy and six girls started when they were children. It continued into adulthood for some.
The abuse went on for years until one victim reported to the police.
Oluronbi, 60, was arrested in May 2018 at Birmingham Airport while trying to flee the UK. was convicted of 15 rape charges, seven indecent assaults and two sexual assaults.
His wife, 58, was found guilty of three charges of aiding and abetting rape.
The jury, which found Oluronbi not guilty of one rape and attempted rape, could not reach a verdict on six charges.
The Oluronbis’ crimes began open for reporting after the CPS said on Tuesday it would not be seeking a retrial.
A filmed confession released by the police shows the preacher describing himself to a victim’s relative as “an animal”.
The couple will be sentenced on a later date.
