Stourbridge News
April 18, 2008
http://www.stourbridgenews.co.uk/news/stourbnewsworcs/display.var.2206357.0.sex_attack_vicar_set_free.php
A VICAR who carried out a sex attack on a teenage girl has been set free by a judge who said the decision may seem "ludicrous" to the public.
Judge Alistair McCreath said the offences committed by the Rev Nduna Mpunzi, who also assaulted his wife, were so serious they deserved a 16-month jail term.
However, he said Mpunzi, the vicar of St Barnabas with Christ Church, Tolladine, Worcester, needed to attend a sex offenders' work programme as he handed him a three-year community rehabilitation order.
He ordered Mpunzi must also register as a sex offender for seven years.
Mpunzi, aged 61, walked free from Worcester Crown Court yesterday after spending eight months in prison on remand. The court heard he acted strangely and was "like a timebomb waiting to explode" on the lead up to an assault on his wife and sexual fondling of a teenage girl.
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| The Rev Nduna Mpunzi |
Mpunzi rejected offers of help from fellow clergy and thought he could cure himself by prayer, said his barrister.
Mpunzi admitted the assault on his wife and indecently touching a teenage girl. Members of his family were in the public gallery to hear prosecutor Abigail Nixon give details of two charges of common assault and one of indecent asssault committed between May 2002 and last year.
He admitted groping a 16-year-old girl, giving his wife Julie Highway a violent push, and assaulting a 15-year-old girl by beating.
Miss Nixon said he had split with his first wife and was working as a vicar in Walsall when he met Mrs Highway, who helped him with baby-sitting. They developed a relationship and he eventually married her.
He met the 16-year-old who complained about aching legs after a walk in the Walsall arboretum. She felt uncomfortable when he began to massage her legs and touched her private parts but did not complain at the time.
Mpunzi worked in Burton-on-Trent before moving to Worcester, where he imposed a strict regime on his family, often switching off the electricity and not allowing the children to have visits from friends.
His wife called for help from his team vicar and the rural dean after he began acting strangely calling her "a whore".
She also wrote several letters to the bishop.
Owen Davies QC, defending, said Mpunzi's wife had told the bishop that he was "like a timebomb waiting to explode" and needed medical help.
Unfortunately, Mpunzi rejected offers of help and thought he could cure himself by prayer.
Mr Davies said that Mpunzi, who came from South Africa in 1978, had been a popular parish priest but had suffered a serious blow to the head from his wife's previous partner.
His marriage had disintegrated but the sex offence was isolated and there was no suggestion that he was a threat to young girls.
Mr Davies said there had been pressures in working in Tolladine and four previous vicars had called for help. The judge conceded that it was a difficult area of the city.
Mpunzi was suspended in August last year and has to face a clergy disciplinary meeting to decide his future. Worcester diocese spokeswoman Anni Holden said there had been shock at his behaviour and failure to uphold the expected high standards.
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