Villagers kill ‘Black Jesus’ cult leader
Print Edition
An infamous cult leader known as “Black Jesus,” who was suspected of cannibalism, has been chopped to death in a remote Papua New Guinea village, reports said yesterday.
Steven Tari, a convicted rapist, had been on the run since escaping from a prison in Madang in the Pacific nation’s east during a mass breakout with 48 others in March.
Madang police chief Sylvester Kalaut said Tari and a follower were killed at a village about 20 kilometers outside Madang on Thursday, as they were attacking a young woman.
“He is now dead and this could be the fate of the others who are also on the run from authorities, and I am warning and strongly urging those escapees to surrender themselves to the authorities,” Kalaut told the PNG Post-Courier.
Tari, a failed Lutheran pastor who was widely known as Black Jesus, was found guilty in 2010 of raping girls in his Christian-based sect and sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
At the time, he had thousands of village followers.
Kalaut said the woman Tari attacked was “a flower girl tricked into joining the cult,” adding that angry villagers had surrounded him and his companion and killed them.
His death follows that of a schoolgirl a week ago — allegedly murdered by Tari.
When he was captured in 2007, there were allegations his cult practiced cannibalism and sacrificial blood rituals.
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