Police in Dowa have arrested a 55-year-old Evangelical Pentecostal Church pastor for raping and impregnating a 16-year-old girl.
According to Dowa police station spokesperson Richard Kaponda, the girl has this year sat for Primary School Leaving Certificate of Education examinations.
During the month of March, this year, she attended night prayers at the house of the said pastor with other people.
The prayers ended around 3am and she slept there since she could not manage to go home at that hour.
On the same night, the girl went out to answer a call of nature. The pastor followed her to the toilet where he demanded sex but the girl turned him down. The pastor then raped the girl.
After some months, the mother of the victim noted that the girl was pregnant and that is when the victim told her parents about the rape.
The matter was reported to Mvera police on 15th July and the victim was sent to Mvera Mission hospital in the district for medical examination where results showed she is pregnant.
Meanwhile, police have opened a case of defilement against the pastor who admitted raping the girl in March when the victim was 15 years old.
The suspect Matias Paul hails from Kalembo village in the area of Traditional Authority Chiwere in Dowa district.
