A bishop accused of defiling three girls he was living with at an orphanage, infecting one of them with HIV has now sentenced to 75 years in prison.
Kisumu Resident Magistrate Pauline Mbulika found him guilty of three counts of defilement and deliberate transmission of HIV.
Joseph Agutu had promised to sponsor the minors before he started defiling them.
Agutu who hid his face from the cameras as police escorted him out of the solitary cell to Kodiaga Maximum Prison, had maintained his innocence throughout the proceedings.
He was charged with committing the crime against the girls between April and July 2016. One of the girls is aged 14 while two are 15 years old.
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The court heard that the accused intentionally committed the crime and deliberately infected one of the minors with HIV.
The accused also reportedly touched the girls inappropriately on various dates between April and July 12, 2016. In addition, Agutu also faced an alternative charge of touching the private parts of the minors.
Four prosecution witnesses pointed an accusing finger to the Bishop with the minors recounting the sexual encounters that the man subjected them to.
One of the minors who is an orphan painfully narrated to the court how the bishop lured her and her grandmother to the trap.
“My grandmother brought me to him and he promised to sponsor my education. My grandmother went back home and left me with him at the church,” said the minor.
After a while, she told the court, the bishop defiled her and called the other girl and defiled them too as she slept on the floor. She said they were crying throughout the ordeal.
The court heard that the following morning the bishop refused to allow them to go to school but instead ordered them to go to church.
