A MILLIONAIRE minister accused of child smuggling yesterday launched an astonishing attack on the Daily Record.
Kenyan Gilbert Deya reacted with fury to our revelations that he had fled to Scotland.
We told how the self-styled archbishop faced arrest after claiming he performed miracles which gave childless women babies.
But police believe the children were stolen from an African maternity hospital and sold to desperate couples in Britain for £5000 each.
Yesterday, the former beggar contacted the Record to threaten legal action and told our reporter: ‘You have become an enemy of god.
‘You talk to my solicitor and you pay the price of what you wrote today.’
Deya claims his prayers allow infertile and post-menopausal women to have ‘miracle babies’ without having sex.
But authorities in his homeland believe the children were kidnapped from a maternity hospital in Nairobi which is at the centre of a police probe.
Now Kenyan authorities want to extradite Deya.
But the UK-based evangelist – who leads his own church – hit out at the Record for reporting the case.
He fumed: ‘You have spoiled my name in the whole area.
‘You reported lies. I am not smuggling babies, as you put it. That is rubbish and the truth is coming out.’
Deya’s British-born wife Mary appeared in a Nairobi court earlier this month charged with child abduction.
Police who raided their palatial home in the Kenyan capital recovered 10 children – DNA tests showed that at least six were not related to them.
Four other people have also been charged, including a ‘miracle mum’ who had 11 children taken from her.
Scotland Yard detectives are also probing the baby smuggling claims.
A spokeswoman said: ‘We are liaising with the authorities in Kenya and inquires are continuing.’
The Charities Commission are also probing the church, which has a £1million London HQ.
Deya’s 34,000 UK followers have to donate a tenth of their salary.
He has amassed three homes, a private jet and a helicopter. The commission have the power to freeze the charity’s bank accounts and close it down.
Deya has appointed Aamar Anwar – of Glasgow firm Beltrami Berlow, voted Scots Criminal Law Firm of the Year – to fight his extradition.
Last night, Mr Anwar said: ‘Mr Deya is in Scotland but he is not in hiding.’
When told about his verbal attack on the Record, Mr Anwar added: ‘Mr Deya is a religious man and deeply upset at the allegations.’
But Kenyan police spokesman Jaspher Ombati confirmed that Deya was still a wanted man.
He said: ‘The process is on to extradite Deya. We feel it is very, very important to talk to him.’
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BISHOP DEYA
DEYA’S claim that the Record is an enemy of God puts Scotland’s biggest-selling newspaper in lauded company .
The ranting ‘archbishop’ calls down fire and brimstone on anyone who questions his ability to make miracle babies.
He once cursed Kenyan president Emillo Mwai Kibaki and the country’s attorney general, Amos Wako.
Deya told them: ‘Your children and grandchildren will die in the streets the way you have left these holy children of the Almighty to suffer and be humiliated. ‘ He also lambasted Kenyan authorities for taking children from his Nairobi home, saying: ‘The Lord will blow their heads off and scatter their bodies in the street. ‘ Deya doesn’t even spare his relatives. He says he was born in a tin hut to ‘a family of thieves’ and calls his father ‘ a pagan, a drunk and a womaniser’.