Religious community leader jailed for raping pregnant parishioner

An Adelaide religious leader is behind bars after he was found guilty of raping and indecently assaulting a pregnant parishioner.

An Adelaide-based religious leader who raped a pregnant parishioner had previously tried to convince his victim that her spiritual path was being blocked and she needed to enter into a sexual relationship with him to unblock it, the District Court has heard.

The 41-year-old man, whose name has been suppressed, was sentenced to six and a half years in jail, with a non-parole period of three years and 11 months, after a jury found him guilty of rape and indecent assault.

The court on Monday heard the victim and her husband considered the man to be a respected leader within the religious community’s Adelaide contingent.

However Judge Michael Durrant said the man “took advantage of (his) role as (the victim’s) spiritual adviser by indecently assaulting and raping her in her own home”.

The court was told the man, who is married with two children, first met the victim in 2018 when he travelled to the Northern Territory to assist families there with their spiritual development.

The victim lived in a Northern Territory town with her husband and child at the time.

She and her family later moved to Adelaide where they continued to seek guidance from the religious community leader and attended worship at Waterloo Corner.

On several occasions, the leader and the victim went for walks around Parafield Gardens to discuss spiritual matters, the court was told.

“You told (the victim) during those walks you had known each other in an earlier life and her spiritual path was being blocked by an unfulfilled sexual desire between you,” he said.

“You said she needed to act on that unfulfilled sexual desire to unblock her ... path.”

Judge Durrant said the woman rejected the man’s suggestion but on July 30, 2020, by which point the woman was pregnant, the religious community leader attended her home when she was alone and touched her breasts without consent before he raped her on her bed.

“She screamed and cried as you did so,” he said.

In her victim impact statement, the woman said she had trusted the leader and she felt betrayed by his actions.

She also said she was “extremely ashamed” at what had occurred and it took her many weeks to reveal the man’s offending to her husband.

The court heard the man, who was born in India and had lived in Adelaide for the past 12 years, had no prior criminal record.