Three women have appeared before a court accused of gang raping a pastor who went round to their home to demand money they owed him.

Western Commonage Magistrates Court in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, heard how the holy man was grabbed and forced onto a bed and then stripped.

The three women Sandra Ncube, 21, Riamuhetsi Mlauzi, 23, and Mongiwe Mpofu, 25, were in the dock charged with aggravated indecent assault.

Prosecutor Mr Petros Shoko said the complainant, who is not being named to spare his blushes, was a pastor at a church in Cowdray Park.

Samdra Ncube, Riamuhetsi Mlauzi, and Mongiwe Mpofu have denied raping the pastor

He said the male victim had gone to the home of the three women as he was owed money and he was invited inside the house to collect it.

But once inside he alleged he was grabbed by one woman around the waist and his trousers were pulled down by another who then fondled him.

Mr Shoko said: 'On July 14 at 7pm the complainant went to the accused persons residence to collect money which Mlauzi owed.

'They forced him to lie on the bed and undressed him. Ncube sat on his chest and he tried to push her away.

'However Mlauzi held his legs together and sat on his top pressing him against the bed

'Mpofu was in another room and brought condoms and placed them on the complainants manhood and helped to hold him down.

'Ncube had sexual intercourse with the complainant once without his consent' Mr Shoko said.

The three denied raping the pastor but admitted indecent assault.

Ncube said: 'We were just playing around Your Worship. I did not think that he would take it seriously'.

Mpofu denied taking part but admitted bringing the condoms saying: 'We keep them around the house and I just brought them'.

Mlauzi said she wanted to 'fix' the pastor who she claimed had a habit of walking in on the women when they were bathing.

She said: 'He always walks in on me bathing and claims to be unmoved as a man of God. I just wanted to see if he was going to be aroused or not.

'I did not plan to execute the whole rape thing Your Worship'.

Magistrate Lungile Ncube was told by Mlauzi that she just wanted to prove to the pastor that he had 'feelings like everybody else'.

She said: 'I wanted him to see that he was not special and was not immune to sexual arousal.

'When I touched him he immediately got aroused and that is all we wanted to see' she said.

The complainant was taken to Mpilo Central Hospital for a medical examination and the report will be prepared for the magistrates.

All three were remanded in custody until August 7 for a full trial.

Earlier this month a 39-year-old teacher was hospitalised in Zimbabwe after claiming a gang of three women kidnapped, drugged and raped him for two days.

The man from Makoni in Chitungwiza was left with severely bruised genitals and doctors at Waza Hospital found other signs of sexual abuse after he was dumped by the roadside.

Police are still trying to find the three women who are allegedly part of a 'sperm bandit' gang preying on hitchhikers and travellers and steal and sell their semen for 'good luck'.

There is no suggestion the two alleged crimes are related.