Conviction Claimed spiritual healing or mediumship Abadiânia, Goiás, Brazil · 2019

Brazil: 'João de Deus' — the medium whose healing consultations produced hundreds of complainants

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-proclaimed medium and curandeiro of the Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, Abadiânia

Organization

Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, Abadiânia

Spiritual nexus

CORE, and the strongest healer-authority nexus in the corpus: hundreds of women travelled to him because he was believed to heal, and the assaults happened inside the consultations that belief brought them to.

Spiritual healing or treatment
Guru or spiritual-teacher authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2019-12-01 · convictions across seventeen actions; aggregate reduced on appeal; further appeals pending

Goiás courts; Tribunal de Justiça de Goiás. João Teixeira de Faria, known as João de Deus, was first sentenced in December 2019 for four rapes, and was ultimately convicted across seventeen criminal actions arising from abuse of women who came to him for spiritual healing at Abadiânia. In 2026 the Goiás high court reduced his aggregate sentence from roughly 489 years to around 211 years; several cases remain under special-appeal review at the Superior Tribunal de Justiça.

Appellate history

2026 · undefined

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Documented coercion mechanisms

abuse committed during 'passes' and spiritual consultations
international reputation as a healer drawing women seeking cures

Primary record

Sources

official court release verdict release Tribunal de Justiça de Goiás: all actions judged at first instance.: The state court's own release.
legal news court reporting appellate outcome report Direito News: the 2026 appellate reduction explained.: Legal-press report of the appellate outcome.

Related record

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