CONTROVERSIAL Pastor Timothy Omotoso’s lawyer tried to discredit a witness in court yesterday.
But his plan seems to have backfired.
Witness Cheryl Zondi remained calm and confident and Judge Mandela Makaula blocked the line of questioning the Pastor's lawyer was pursuing.
Advocate Peter Dauberman shocked the judge and the gallery with some of the questions he asked the 22-year-old marketing student at the University of Joburg.
She is one of a group of girls who have accused the pastor of sexual assault and rape.
The case is being heard in the High Court in Port Elizabeth.
Judge Makaula severely reprimanded Dauberman when he asked Zondi: “Did Omotoso insert his penis into your vagina?”
When she replied it only went in slightly, he asked: “How many centimetres?”
The question made people in the gallery gasp and Judge Makaula said he would not allow that type of question in his court.
Dauberman accused the judge of interfering with his cross examination and said he would take the matter further.
Zondi earlier told the court she joined the Jesus Dominion International Church when she was 13 and didn’t know it was an illegitimate church with a fake pastor.
Dauberman asked Zondi why she didn’t seek help the first time she was sexually assaulted.
She said: “I was too scared and too shocked that a man of God was capable of doing this.
“I was too scared to oppose him or inform anyone because anyone who opposed him died.”
When Dauberman said it was strange that Zondi couldn’t remember the exact month or date the alleged sexual assault happened, she said this was because she suffered trauma over a long period of time.
After lunch the war of words between the judge and Dauberman escalated.
Dauberman asked Zondi whether, when she went back to Durban from Mpumalanga for the second time, she was ready to be raped. Makaula stopped Dauberman and said: “Nobody would go there asking to be raped.
“No human being could ask to be raped.
“That question is wrong.”
Omotoso and his co-accused, Lusanda Sulani (36) and Zukiswa Sitho (28), face 97 charges of sexual assault, rape and human trafficking.
