A naked and apparently deranged man sent some worshippers scampering when he disrupted Christmas-Sunday Mass at the Holy Family Catholic Cathedral on December 27.
Reports say – and video footage confirms – that the man ran around the church, despite the efforts of several males to capture and restrain him.
When he entered the house of worship, he was wearing an adult diaper, a source says. However, it reportedly fell off during the chase.
In one video, the strapping young man appears to be dreadlocked and is wearing nothing except for a cast, or bandages, on his right arm, and pieces of adhesive bandages on his torso.
After he is cornered and seated at the rear of the cathedral, the nude man wrestles himself away and dashes toward the southwest pews before mounting a low wall and eventually breaching the altar.
In another video of the incident, he appears to be banging on the lectern just before he is tackled by personnel from Mount St. John Medical Centre, from which he reportedly escaped.
A third film shows the man – who seems, by then, to be much calmer and wrapped in a hospital gown – being led away from the premises by the hospital staff, accompanied by Police and Army officers.
A source alleges that the young man is not a mental patient, but was the victim of a mind-altering substance he was given in a smoke.
On learning of the incident, one woman threw up her hands and declared, “This country needs an exorcism!”
