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Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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Love thy neighbour?

May 12 2011
Vicar pours boiling water on rough sleeper


A vicar who stabbed and poured boiling water over a homeless man sheltering outside his church has been jailed for seven years.

Reverend Friday Archy, 51, attacked Ben Donetus, 25, to punish him for been a sinful homeless person, a court heard. Before stabbing his victim in the neck, armpit and chest, Archy screamed: “I told you to go, if you stay here you will die.”

Mr Donetus was left with severe burns, four stab wounds and a collapsed lung. Archy, a vicar at Christ-Choosing Church of God, in Peckham, southeast London, was jailed after being found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent following a trial at Inner London Crown Court, Southwark. Donetus, who had been sleeping rough for two years, had been sheltering by the church for around two months with two others.

Describing the attack in May last year, he said: “I remember waking up, feeling wet. I felt my back and it was wet. I could feel it was also hot. “I turned over and saw the reverend standing over me with an electric kettle in his left hand.

“He was shouting: ‘Get out, get out’. I tried to get up, but the reverend pushed me to the ground. As I fell I saw he had a silver knife in his right hand. I turned away to protect myself, then felt myself being stabbed. I could see the reverend was standing over me, stabbing at me.

“He was shouting: ‘I told you to go, if you stay here you will die’. “I was really frightened he was going to kill me. I yelled for help.”

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