The Prophet and the Mysterious Death of Charmain Speirs

Just now

Myles Bonnar,BBC disclosure,

Ben RobinsonAnd

Kevin Anderson

Charmain Speirs was 40 years old when she met Prophet Eric Adusah.

For several years, Charmain had been part of one of the fastest growing Christian movements in the world, Pentecostalism.

Through her faith, she seemed to discover the happiness she had struggled to find, but something was still missing.

“She was just tired of normal men,” says her friend Anne-Marie.

“She wanted this man of God. She wanted what was promised to her.

“Then she said, ‘I met someone, a famous preacher.’

His new love interest was the head pastor of the Global Light Revival Church.

Originally from Ghana, Adusah appeared regularly on Christian television channels.

He was not just a pastor. In his church he was called a prophet and believed that he received and shared divine revelation directly from God.

Charmain met the prophet in the spring of 2014 and after a whirlwind romance, they married in September of that year.

Six months later, Charmain was dead, her body found in a hotel bathtub in Ghana.

Adusah was arrested on suspicion of murder, but was later released due to lack of evidence.

He denied any involvement in Charmain’s death.

More than a decade later, a BBC Disclosure investigation found significant omissions in its account of what happened at the hotel where Charmain died.

The documentary series – Charmain and the prophet – also hears from Adusah’s former partners who say he poses a danger to women.

Charmain grew up in Arbroath, a small fishing town on the east coast of Scotland, in the 1970s and 1980s.

His mother Linda was a cleaner and his father Peter was a plumber.

Her friends describe her as a “social butterfly” that people gravitated toward.

At 19 she moved to Glasgow where she took up numerous jobs in shops, restaurants and bars.

Her friend Linsey says in the documentary that Charmain had several relationships, some volatile, and briefly ended up in a women’s shelter.

Back home, his family also went through difficult times.

She lost a brother in a car accident, then her youngest brother became addicted to heroin.

Around the age of 30, Charmain moved to Swansea to start a new life and study photojournalism.

A few years later, in 2007, she had a little boy whom she named Isaac.

As a single mother, Charmain struggled with postnatal depression – that’s when she discovered religion.

She joined the newly established Liberty Church and became an enthusiastic member.

Adusah was primarily based in London, preaching as the head pastor of another Pentecostal church.

They met through a Christian dating site and a few weeks later their engagement was announced.

Charmain’s mother, Linda Speirs, was stunned when her daughter contacted her to tell her she was getting married – because she hadn’t even told him she had a boyfriend.

Friends told the BBC that as the relationship progressed, they went from seeing her daily to almost not at all.

About six months after first meeting Charmain, she was married and became the wife of a prophet, called the First Lady by Church members.

Maid of honor Mehrunissa Thomas said: “She had gone from being a normal person to being a celebrity.”

Charmain seemed to accept the role.

But her friend Anne-Marie says that during her visit, she had a different vision of Charmain’s married life.

Anne-Marie told the show: “She basically said, ‘He doesn’t show me any love. There’s no love, there’s no passion,’ that’s what she said.”

Charmain, now pregnant with Adusah’s baby, returned to Arbroath to spend time with her mother.

It was the first time Linda had seen her since the wedding.

She confided to her mother that their marriage was in ruins and that she was considering moving away.

But then she took the bus to London before flying to Ghana. Her mother would never see her again.

Visitors at night

Police records indicate Adusah was the last known person to see Charmain alive.

In statements to police, seen by the BBC, he described going out to lunch with Charmain before going to the swimming pool with her.

He said they then returned to their hotel room for the evening and had “a great time together”.

Adusah said he left the hotel after midnight to travel to Accra for a 6am meeting before catching a scheduled flight back to the UK.

He said Charmain wanted to stay longer in Ghana.

A witness who worked at the hotel that night said the Prophet’s account left out a crucial detail.

Edward – not his real name – says that late at night, two tall men arrived with Adusah and accompanied him to room 112 where Charmain was staying.

He said he remembered one of the men holding a briefcase.

Edward says he and his colleagues were suspicious of why the men were in the room, but he didn’t dare question them.

According to Edward, the men stayed for up to an hour and then helped Adusah load the bags into his car.

Around 1 a.m., Adusah left the hotel, telling staff not to disturb his wife.

Edward says the last time he saw Charmain alive was about five hours before Adusah and the men left.

Adusah never mentioned these visitors to Ghanaian detectives.

Police documents confirm that witnesses reported the presence of three men.

Two of these men were later tracked down and confirmed that they were there that night and knew Adusah through his ministry.

They each claim to have been in the room praying.

One of those men said Charmain was “vibrant and kicking, moving up and down” when they were in the room.

Another man only confirmed that Charmain was present.

A third man appears to have never been found or questioned by Ghanaian investigators.

BBC Disclosure asked retired Scottish Detective Superintendent Allan Jones to review Ghanaian police files.

He calls Adusah’s omission very suspicious.

“You have the hotel guard [Edward] speaking at different times with various people coming in and out,” the detective said.

“And for him [Adusah] not to mention that once is very strange.

“If this many people come into this room, even as defense witnesses, you should mention them.”

A dubious alibi

Adusah told police he left his wife in the middle of the night to meet a reverend in Accra, Ghana’s capital, at 6 a.m.

The BBC found this reverend. He did not corroborate Adusah’s story.

There is no evidence that Ghanaian investigators ever tested Adusah’s alibi, which was the sole reason for his departure in the middle of the night.

“In a modern police investigation in the UK, everyone mentioned in a statement is found,” says former Superintendent Jones.

“The person he says he meets at 6 a.m. is an important person to see, to verify whether this meeting is true or not.

“And if that didn’t happen, that’s a bad reflection on the investigators at the time.”

The BBC has contacted the Ghana Police for comment. They did not answer our questions.

The mystery of the heroine

Shortly before the autopsy on Charmain’s body, Adusah told police his wife was deeply troubled, suicidal and had a history of drug abuse.

This story would play a central role in Adusah’s release.

Six days after his body was discovered, leading pathologist Dr Afua Abrahams conducted an autopsy.

“There were no marks of violence or trauma on the body,” she assures.

“If there was any sign of a struggle, it wasn’t obvious.”

Dr. Abrahams says she was surprised to find that there was heroin – actually a metabolite of heroin – in his blood and liver samples.

The probable cause of his death was recorded as a heroin overdose.

Heroin is extremely rare in Ghana, especially in small towns like Koforidua, where Charmain was staying.

Dr Abrahams asked detectives how a tourist could obtain heroin.

She says they told her, “People who use drugs know where to find them. »

Police found no drug paraphernalia, no traces of heroin in room 112 and nothing among Charmain’s belongings.

As part of the decision to release Adusah, Ghana’s attorney general’s office referenced text messages indicating that Charmain was suicidal.

Family and friends interviewed by the BBC deny that Charmain took drugs or was suicidal.

“She hated everyone who did drugs,” says Charmain’s mother, Linda.

“She just couldn’t take it. She said, ‘why would someone do that to her body?’.”

More than 20 people close to Charmain gave similar testimonies: she did not use drugs and was not suicidal.

“First of all, she hated drugs,” says her maid of honor Mehrunissa Thomas.

“Secondly, there is no way she could have had any drugs in her system knowing she was pregnant.

“It doesn’t look like him at all, it doesn’t look like him at all. out.”

A second autopsy in the United Kingdom later analyzed Charmain’s hair.

The results were negative for opioids, confirming that she was not a long-term drug user.

Who is the Prophet?

During the BBC investigation it became clear that Eric Adusah had multiple identities.

In Ghana, locals know him as Eric Adu Faito.

In Maryland, USA – where he currently lives – his name is Eric Isaiah Kusi Boateng.

Former partners say Adusah had different names and ages.

Lynne, who was in what she describes as an emotionally abusive relationship with him, only knew him as “Daniel” until another woman contacted her.

She didn’t know he was a pastor.

The woman who contacted Lynne and another former partner told us they would later warn Charmain about Adusah.

Another partner, Emily, whose name has been changed, says Adusah controlled every aspect of her life.

“He gradually, very slowly, started to change,” she says.

“My hair had to be done a certain way, I had to be dressed a certain way, everything had to be strictly as he said.

“I had to stay at home, I couldn’t go out, he also took my phone, because he didn’t want me to call my family.”

Emily says the real Eric was very different from the pious preacher he portrayed. be an elf.

“In reality, I was very vulnerable and didn’t realize that months were passing and he had brainwashed me,” she says.

“I was manipulated by the fact that it was God’s will. I was afraid of going against God’s will.”

She says Adusah used faith to manipulate and isolate her, describing his power as “mental and not physical.”

However, Charmain’s son Isaac said Adusah hit him and his mother.

“I could hear my mother screaming and crying,” says Isaac, 19.

“And he came into my room trying to hit me.

“My mother stood between him and me and he ended up punching her in the face.”

Isaac said: “He called himself a prophet. Which prophet would hit their wife? What prophet would lay a finger on a child?

“I don’t think a prophet would do such a thing.”

“The way he talked to my mother, the way he treated her, he was not a goddamn prophet.

“He was a wicked human being. He didn’t deserve a fraction of the praise he received in that church.”

According to Isaac, there was also psychological abuse.

“He controlled every aspect of his life,” Isaac says.

“He controlled her phone, her money, her clothes, her eating habits.

“Her happiness was controlled by him. It wasn’t a relationship. It was just him dictating her life.”

Charmain’s mother also claims to have witnessed signs of domestic violence.

While cutting Charmain’s hair, Linda says she discovered patches of baldness that she believes were inflicted by Adusah.

“I was brushing the back of his hair and when I put his hair up. There were all bald spots in the back. I said to him, ‘Why do you have bald spots in your Charmain hair and on your scalp?'” Linda says.

At first, her daughter was reluctant to say more, Linda said, before finally claiming that her husband had pulled her hair.

“I said, ‘Why is he pulling your hair?’ And of course my voice would get louder and I would get angry,” Linda says.

Several sources told the BBC they had seen signs of a wider system of coercive control.

Charmain’s last days

When she was in Ghana, Charmain’s relatives had difficulty reaching her.

A woman from Adusah’s church – who later gave a statement to British police – said Charmain had secretly obtained a second phone because Adusah had confiscated her main one.

Charmain told him she discovered Adusah used another name, lied about his age and had another wife in Ghana.

The witness said Charmain was considering divorce and planned to confront her husband about “his conduct toward her.”

The woman said she received a call from Charmain the day before she was last seen alive.

She told police she could hear the couple arguing. She said Adusah was screaming and Charmain was submissive.

“Every time Eric [Adusah] was speaking, I heard the sound of a table as if he was hitting a table with his hand to emphasize what he was saying,” the woman said.

This witness said that after 15 minutes, she heard “another noise and the call ended.”

Ghanaian police never saw this statement because British authorities decided not to share it, as Ghana retained the death penalty.

The search for answers

The BBC documentary traced Adusah to Maryland, USA, where he lives with his wife and children and still preaches with the Global Light Revival.

He told the BBC that the investigation and attempts to question him had caused him “severe emotional distress” and that he had “endured deep personal trauma” after losing his wife and child.

He did not respond to our questions about the treatment of his former partners.

The truth about what happened in Room 112 may never be fully known.

Charmain’s son Isaac is still searching for answers as he lives his life without his mother.

“I have to live the rest of my life knowing that my mother will never see what I do with my life. It really touches me,” he says.