SAINT-DENIS, Réunion, April 27 (UPI) -- French cult leader Juliano Verbard, jailed for rape and child molestation, has escaped by helicopter from an Indian Ocean island prison, officials say.

Verbard, 27, who was serving a 15-year term on the island of Reunion, was pulled onto a hijacked helicopter along with two prison followers, identified as Alexin Jismy and Fabrice Michel, the BBC reported.


Three accomplices had allegedly hijacked the helicopter after posing as tourists, forcing the two-man crew to fly onto the prison grounds at gunpoint. Officials told the BBC the helicopter took off from the prison and landed a few hundred yards away, where Verbard, the two other prisoners and the accomplices drove off in a waiting van.

The British broadcaster said Verbard was the leader of the pseudo religious cult called the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary when he was jailed last year for rape and sexual attacks on children.

The helicopter pilot reportedly told a local Reunion radio station that one of the hijackers put a gun to his head while another threatened to light a bottle of gasoline he was holding.