The Arua Chief Magistrate’s Court has for the third time remanded a Catholic priest attached to Arua Diocese over allegations of defiling and impregnating a 16 year old girl.
Chief Magistrate Moses Angualia on Friday remanded Rev. Fr. Modesto Etrima, the former parish priest of Aripea Catholic parish, to prison until July 31, 2012.
This comes just a day after High Court in Arua sentenced another priest, Fr. Santos Constatino Wapokura from Pakwach catholic parish in Nebbi Diocese, to ten years imprisonment for defiling a 15 year old girl. Justice Yasin Nyanzi jailed 47 year old Fr. Wapokura after prosecution proved that he defiled the girl three times on different occasions between November 2009 and March 2010.
According to Magistrate Angualia, inquiries into Fr. Etrima’s case are not yet complete.
Angualia told Etrima before sending him back on remand that court is expecting the last reports from the police for perusal before committing him to the High Court for trial.
Fr. Etrima has been on remand for three months since his arrest on March 10, 2012. He was arrested from Aripea Catholic Mission after residents threatened to lynch him.
The priest was accused of defiling and impregnating a senior three student who was under his care. By the time of his arrest, medical examination showed that the girl was five months pregnant.
Court heard that Fr. Etrima on several occasions forced the victim into sex while she did domestic work for him.
Records from court also show that the girl started staying with Fr. Etrima when she was in primary six and that they started getting sexually involved when the victim was in senior two.
However, Fr. Etrima denied the charges arguing that he was helping the girl as a guardian and he didn’t have any sexual intercourse with her.
