The first prosecution witness in the rape trial of the Leader of Jezreel Lion of Judah, Jone Cokanauto has told the High Court that Cokanauto told them in the church sermons that he is Jesus and his sperm will cleanse the women spiritually.
During the cross examination, defence counsel Simione Valenitabua asked the 30-year-old woman if Cokanauto talked about sexual intercourse in their church.
The woman who was allegedly raped by Cokanauto on three separate occasions and was also impregnated twice by Cokanauto, said in court that Cokanauto talked about sexual intercourse in his sermons.
When questioned by Valenitabua, the alleged victim said that Cokanauto said in his sermons that once a woman’s womb is cleansed, a baby will be born.
Valenitabua then put to the 30-year-old woman that she was not raped by Cokanauto in Taveuni and Nadera.
The woman maintained that she was raped by Cokanauto.
During the re-examination by prosecution lawyer, Meli Vosawale, the woman told the High Court that Cokanauto told her that she will die if she tells anyone about what had happened.
She told the court that Cokanauto told her that whenever anyone asks about the two children, she should say that the father of the children is a Manoa Seru.
During the cross examination, defence counsel Simione Valenitabua put to the woman that the two children are not Cokanauto’s children as she has said because the offence did not happen.
The woman who was in tears, told the court that they are Cokanauto’s children and Cokanauto had sexual intercourse with her.
Valenitabua showed the birth certificate of the child which did not have the names of Cokanauto and the witness as the parents.
The woman said that she gave her baby for adoption.
The second state witness in the rape trial has told the court that she joined the ministry in 2005 when she was in university.
The 33-year-old woman said that Cokanauto used to preach to them that the Samaritan woman represented a prostitute in the bible, a woman is a Temple of God, the living water is the semen and that the temple needs to be cleansed in order for the water of life to flow from it.
When asked by the prosecution, the woman said that Cokanauto told them that the living water was his semen.
The 33-year-old woman told the court that Cokanauto told her to take off her clothes and he laid on her in a house in Nadera in 2006 when she was 22, and he had said that this was part of the cleansing process.
When asked by the prosecution on why she did not resist, the woman said that she respected Cokanauto and believed in his teaching that they needed to be cleansed.
The woman confirmed that she got married in 2007 and her husband was also part of Jezreel Lion of Judah.
During cross examination by the defence, the second state witness told the court that she had taken off her clothes herself in Nadera and she was not forced or threatened.
Cokanauto has pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape, four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted rape before Justice Salesi Temo.
It is alleged that he committed the offences in Nasinu and Taveuni between 2005 and 2012.
The trial continues in the Suva High Court.
