Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Evangelical, Pentecostal, and independent Comayagüela, Tegucigalpa, Honduras · 2017

Honduras: pastor sentenced to 136 years for raping four children of his congregation

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor of an independent evangelical church

Organization

Iglesia Resurrección de Cristo

Spiritual nexus

The children were congregants of the church the defendant pastored, and the coercion was explicitly religious: he told them God had revealed that misfortune would befall their families unless they submitted to sexual contact with him. The claimed revelation is what made refusal feel impossible.

  • Prophecy or divine command
  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2017-03-21 · unanimous conviction and sentence

    Sala I del Tribunal de Sentencia, Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Franklin Geovanny Cabrera Sierra, pastor of the evangelical church Resurrección de Cristo, was unanimously convicted on eight counts of violación especial for repeatedly raping four children under 14 who attended his congregation between 2004 and 2012, and was sentenced to 136 years (17 years per count, consecutive).

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • claimed divine revelation that misfortune would strike the children's families unless they submitted
  • abuse at both the church and the pastor's residence

Primary record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Pastor evangélico es condenado a 136 años de cárcel por violar a 4 niños', La Prensa (Honduras), 21 Mar. 2017.

Honduran paper of record reporting the unanimous conviction on eight counts, the 136-year sentence, and the divine-revelation coercion described at trial.

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