To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
A cult leader has been charged with murdering 191 children whose bodies were among more than 400 buried in a forest.
Paul Mackenzie is accused of ordering the followers of his Good News International Church to starve themselves and their children so they could get into heaven before the world ended.
Mackenzie and 29 associates – one of whom was found mentally unfit to stand trial – appeared in court in Malindi, Kenya, on Tuesday.
More than 400 bodies have been exhumed, and his followers lived in several secluded settlements across an 800-acre area in the Shakahola forest.
Mackenzie, a former taxi driver, forbade cult members from sending their children to school and from going to hospital when they were ill, branding such institutions as Satanic, some of his followers said.
His lawyer says he is cooperating with the investigation into the deaths.
Hundreds of bodies were found in a mass grave (Picture: Yasuyoshi CHIBA/AFP)
Paul Mackenzie at an earlier court appearance (Picture: REUTERS)
More than 400 bodies have been found so far (Picture: EPA)
Mackenzie was arrested last April and had already been charged with terrorism-related crimes, manslaughter, and torture.
He was also convicted in December of producing and distributing films without a licence and sentenced to 12 months in prison.
The 30 defendants are next due to appear in court on March 7 for a bond hearing.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.