Pastor jailed for 9 years for rape of underaged church member

By Lagi Keresoma/

Apia, SAMOA – 14 October 2026: The Supreme court has sentenced Pastor Petaia Setu to 9 years after the Assessors convicted him on 5 charges of sexual offences.

The charges include 1 count of rape, 3 counts of unlawful intercourse and 1 count of indecent assault.

For the charge of rape, he is sentence to 9 years, 5 years for 3 counts of unlawful sex and 2 years for the charge of indecent assault.

However, all sentences are to be served concurrently which comes down to 9 years in prison.

The offending
The offences happened between 2022 and 2024 and the victim who was 16 at the time was a member of the congregation Setu served as a pastor at Vaitele Fou.

The victim later told her mother who then filed a complaint with the police leading to the charges and court case.

The Assessors in April 2026 found him guilty and Setu appealed the conviction at the Court of Appeal.

On 11 September 2026, the Court of Appeal denied the appeal and Setu was placed under police custody to await sentencing.

Aggravating factors of the offence
Supreme Court Justice Roma pointed out 7 aggravating factors of the offences which include the age of the victim at the time of the offence and the disparity of the ages between the pastor and the victim.

The victim was 16 and he was 64 years old and he had breached the trust bestowed upon him by the victim.

Justice Roma emphasised the repetition of the offence which culminated to the serious offence of rape which warrants a life sentence penalty.

He also pointed out the place where the offence happened was the house entrusted to him by the congregation and also the impact of the offence on the victim.

Mitigating factors in favour of the defendant
The court took into account his personal characteristics.

He is the Chairman of the Ministry of God worldwide and was a spiritual leader from a family of pastoral background.

He left the Methodist church in 2015 to look after his late wife and that references to his character were from prominent community leaders of organisations such as the National Council of Churches, South Seas Christian Ministry (Hawaii), President of the Samoa Victim Support Group and Samoa Aglow.

Justice Roma said based on all these references, what Setu did was “out of character.”

However, the offence was serious, especially the repetition of the offence from 2022 to 2024.

He is now serving 9 years in prison.