Accra, April 3, GNA - Police have arrested a 37 year old pastor of the Shiva Linga Prayer Group based in Cote d "Ivoire and Ghana for defiling 8 minor girls aged between 3 and 12 years.

Pastor James Nana Akwasi Agyeman who claimed also to be a herbalist has denied the allegations but medical examination documents on the victims added to the docket had said otherwise.

Chief Superintendent of Police, Mrs Jessie Borquaye, Regional Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Victims Support Unit (DVVSU), told the Ghana News Agency that the suspect lived in both Ghana and Abidjan and voluntarily consented to take care of the victims from their parents who obliged as they took him to be "a man of God".

She said in December last year, one of the girls about 12 year old girl went to the Pastor's house at St John's near Dome in Accra to celebrate the Christmas holidays.

Mrs Borquaye said the girl revealed to her parents the ordeal the pastor subjected her to and what the others were going through in the hands of Pastor Agyeman.

She said two of the victims' parents immediately reported the matter to the police of the Support Unit and investigations revealed that the pastor was having sex with the children in his house in turns, both in his room and in his bathhouse.

The Police have since relocated the victims from the Pastor's house.

The Regional Coordinator said during preliminary investigations Pastor Agyeman evaded the police but after an intensive search the police arrested him and he claimed he did not go into hiding but he went to visit part of his church members in South Africa. Pastor Agyeman is being processed to be put before court.