'Black magic' bogus faith healer escapes from prison

Abdoulie Gassama, who claimed he had black magic powers, is on the run after disappearing from HMP Sudbury in Derbyshire.

The 36-year-old conman from Birmingham, who has strong connections to Smethwick, was jailed for seven and a half years in June 2016 after pleading guilty to 19 charges of fraud and one of money laundering.

His ‘desperate’ victims, who feared something terrible would happen if they did not pay up, were ‘bled dry’ with two of them giving the fraudster their life savings.

Gassama then ploughed a large amount of the cash he had extorted into lavish property developments in the Gambia.

Mr Ben Mills, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said Gassama claimed he could help people with emotional problems.

“When you look at the words in the advert, he was plainly targeting people who were emotionally vulnerable,” he said.

Over a period of 13 months, between May 2014 and June 2015, three women contacted him in a state of emotional turmoil and were ‘systematically defrauded’ by him.

He saw one of his victims at a house in Handsworth where he greeted her dressed in flowing robes and led her to an upstairs room with prayer mats and photos of various gods and other religious images.

Mr Mills said the women initially paid the defendant a small amount so he could carry out ‘tests’.

He then demanded ever larger sums claiming he needed to carry out prayers, needed materials for various rituals or had to sacrifice exotic animals.

If any of them questioned his authority, he would warn them that failure to pay could lead to 'terrible' things happening to them and their families, even telling one victim that she risked her daughter going blind.

"Each of them were effectively financially bled dry. None of them experienced any improvement in their emotional troubles," said Mr Mills.

The court heard that a large amount of the money had gone through Gassama’s wife’s account and been spent on living expenses and shopping, while some had been transferred to the Gambia where it was used for property construction.

Judge Nicholas Dean, QC, called him ‘a charlatan and a fraudster’ whose ‘cynical callousness’was ‘staggering’.

Gassama, who lived in Kings Norton, is described as black, 6ft 4in tall, bald, with a heavy build.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to contact officers on 101 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.