Mathew Masinge
LIVERPOOL ECHO – Walter Chahwanda claimed to be a ‘man of God’ but was today told by a judge that he was ‘nothing of the sort’
Adam Everett Crown Court Reporter
20 Mar 2026
Walter Chahwanda, 34, of Plemonstall Court in Chester, found guilty on 17 counts including sexual offences, against young girls and women.
A church pastor who claimed to be a “man of God” was told that he was “nothing of the sort” by a judge as he was locked up for subjecting a string of young women and girls to vile sexual abuse.
Walter Chahwanda, the founder of Sound of Dominion Church in Speke, was seen as a “charismatic” and “highly respected church leader”, as well as a being a male beauty pageant winner.
But he abused his position of power in order to satisfy his perverse secret “obsession of being exposed”, offering his victims McDonald’s food and cash to out his exploitative behaviour after bombarding them with unwanted explicit images.
While the dad-of-two attempted to brush his crimes off as merely being “naughty role play”, he left one teenager suicidal after sexually abusing her during a musical rehearsal and “severely damaged” the lives of seven others.
David Watson, prosecuting, told Liverpool Crown Court today, Friday: “The evidence suggests that this defendant used his prominent role within the Apostolic Faith Mission Church to target young female members across the country by sending unsolicited indecent images of himself masturbating.
He was indiscriminate as to whether they were sent to young adults or children, aged 14 to 15 years old.
“The evidence suggested that the sending of images was bound up in the defendant’s well documented sexual obsession of being exposed online. Victims were encouraged, offered rewards and, one one occasion, threatened to disseminate those images.”
A trial previously heard that Chahwanda targeted victims as far afield as Manchester, South Yorkshire, the East Midlands and Kent over the course of more than three years after meeting them via the church, typically by sending unwanted intimate sexual images of himself.
Most disturbingly, he was even said to have physically abused one young teenager during a music practice and “refused to stop, despite warnings from those within the church community”, although his position of power in the organisation “effectively allowed him to do as he pleased”.
Chahwanda contacted many of the girls and women via Snapchat and Instagram before engaging them in sexualised conversations.
These chats would then suddenly be peppered with the intimate pictures and videos, often showing him performing sexual acts upon himself, accompanying one such clip sent to another teenage girl with the message: “Did you like that?”
This would also bizarrely see him “goad” his victims into revealing his behaviour and imploring them to “expose him”, with the “thought of being caught appearing to be part of his sexual fantasies”.
He was even alleged to have offered a 16-year-old complainant cash in order to do so via a later deleted Snapchat account which he had set up under the guise of a fictitious woman and sought to bribe a 17-year-old girl with food from McDonald’s.
Chahwanda meanwhile seemingly set up a Twitter account entitled “Naughty Pastor” and an Instagram page named “All Coming Out Now” for these same purposes and, alarmingly, ordered the girl who he repeatedly sexually assaulted to write “I’m a little slut” in her diary, where she also penned a suicide note.
However, the musician and published author would ultimately be arrested in February 2024 when the father of one of the complainants reported him to the NSPCC and several others came forward to police.
But Chahwanda, who told the jury that he was a beauty pageant winning male model, denied the allegations under interview and dismissed his online activities as being “naughty role play”.
The now 34-year-old continues to deny his guilt.
Chahwanda has one previous conviction for four offences, receiving a suspended prison sentence in 2022 for harassment and three counts of disclosing private sexual photographs.
He was also cautioned for outraging public decency in 2011 after “taking part in sexual activity in public with a partner”.
Richard Reynolds, defending, told the court: “There has been substantial time since a lot of this offending. This man’s now proven predilection towards children was not the whole of his life.
Much of his life has been doing good work and doing his best to promote things which he religiously believed were good.
“This was not a man who started as a paedophile and a man who went into a church to be a paedophile. Rather, that was where his predilection came into play. He has otherwise dedicated a substantial part of his life to doing good and helping others.
“The defendant has been in custody now for about 12 months. He has been employed as a wing worker and cleaner. He has struggled with medical conditions and skin conditions that he has. He struggled at school. He has, in fact, been able to do NVQs in English and maths and study while he is there.
“He continues to run prayer groups in prison. He continues to do music in prison and does what he can to provide a positive input to his community. He has also expressed a real interest in Open University courses and computer coding
“Your honour, he is a man who, despite his predilections and the deep, deep wrongs that he has done to people, has also done a lot of good in his life. That is something that I ask your honour to consider.”
Chahwanda, of Plemonstall Court in Chester, was found guilty of a total of 17 sexual offences by a jury, although he was cleared of raping an 18-year-old in her student accommodation and assault by penetration.
Appearing via video link to HMP Liverpool wearing a white jacket over a black t-shirt, he was jailed for nine years and handed a five-year extended licence period.
Sentencing, Judge David Swinnerton said: “I have just read a number of references about you from people involved in the church.
There are people who describe you as deeply caring and supportive, and as empathetic and selfless.
I accept that it is obvious there are those to whom you have done good, and there is a side to you which is capable of, and has done, good.
“Equally, I heard, as did you, the victim personal statements of eight young women. All of those illustrate someone who is not empathetic and selfless, but someone who has severely damaged the lives and maturing processes of a number of young girls and women, as they are now.
“To some extent, the good enabled you to be in a position where you were trusted by people, where you were not suspected. They saw this good figure in the church, and you abused all of that for your sexual urges to come to the fore. You certainly did not treat those eight young women with empathy or selflessness.
“You described yourself as a man of God. If that means someone who behaves in a way befitting of his religion and church, you are nothing of the sort in the behaviours that you exhibited towards the eight young women who I am concerned with.
“It is clear that you were seen as a leader, a highly respected church leader, a youth leader, particularly in music. All of that charisma, you have abused for your own sexual ends. You have been involved with fashion, clothing, a watch brand, pageantry. You won Mr Personality. To some extent, they point towards a vanity and self regard.
“You abused the trust and power that you had in your position in the church to violate eight different young girls. People trusted you because of your role in the church, your prominence. Whether fame is the right word or not, certainly, you were a prominent figure.
“Each of them receive unwanted sexual videos of you masturbating. Each was young. Two were only 14 at the time. All, of course, were under 18, still children. All were left bewildered, confused and scared that a man they looked up to, respected by many around them, could behave in this way.
“Their youth made them vulnerable. The impact on them of this behaviour has been immense. At a time when they were growing up, forming their personalities, their approaches to relationships, you stripped them of their dignity and privacy to satisfy your own desires.
“Your behaviour was deliberate, it was predatory and it was sustained towards multiple victims. Some of them went through that ordeal for a couple of years. You continue to show no understanding. You do not accept your guilt of these offences.
“The author of the [pre-sentence] report describes you as a high risk of harm to female children. In my judgement, you remain and will remain a danger to girls. Despite the good things that you are able to do, you do not seem to be able control your sexual impulses, urges or desires. You have got no control over that.
“In my judgement, it is necessary to pass an extended sentence, given the ongoing risk that you do and will present. It is necessary to impose an extended sentence to protect the public in the future.”
Chahwanda, who will be required to serve two thirds of the nine-year term behind bars before becoming eligible for release, was also handed a lifelong sexual harm prevention order and restraining orders which will ban him from contacting his victims indefinitely. He will be required to sign the sex offenders’ register for life.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter