Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Cartagena, Bolívar, Colombia · 2020

Sergio Luis Betancourt Yepes: 16-year sentence for assault during a purported deliverance ritual

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Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pastor and religious leader

Organization

No organization assigned

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

Betancourt Yepes entered a congregant's home under the pretext of a ritual to free her from evil spirits. During the purported ritual, he applied oils that caused somnolence and assaulted her while she was unable to resist. The ritual and pastoral relationship supplied the access, trust and state of vulnerability used in the offense.

Exorcism or deliverance
Pastoral or clerical authority
Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2025-01-15 · conviction and sentence

Criminal trial court in Cartagena, Colombia. The court convicted Betancourt Yepes of aggravated sexual intercourse with a person incapable of resisting and imposed a 16-year prison sentence. The adjudicated conduct involved a congregant whom he purported to liberate from evil spirits.
2025-08-06 · appellate affirmance with extraordinary cassation filed

Criminal Chamber, Superior Tribunal of the Judicial District of Cartagena. The tribunal left the 16-year sentence in force. The defense filed an extraordinary cassation appeal, and no later cassation disposition was located.

Documented coercion mechanisms

purported liberation from evil spirits
application of oils that caused somnolence
pastoral trust and access to a congregant's home

Cited record

Sources

prosecutor sourced contemporaneous reporting trial conviction and ritual pretext Caracol Radio, 'Pastor condenado a 16 años de prisión por abuso sexual en Cartagena' (Jan. 15, 2025).: Prosecutor-sourced trial reporting records the 16-year conviction, the February 22, 2020 date, the congregant relationship, the purported deliverance ritual and the use of oils that caused somnolence.
prosecutor sourced appellate reporting appellate affirmance and open cassation Caracol Radio, 'Dos pastores religiosos fueron condenados por abuso sexual en Cartagena' (Aug. 6, 2025).: Prosecutor-sourced appellate reporting records that the Superior Tribunal left the 16-year sentence in force and that the defense filed an extraordinary cassation appeal. It also restates the deliverance ritual, oils and resulting inability to resist.
high quality reporting judgment report El Espectador, 'A la cárcel pastor de iglesia que abusó sexualmente de feligresas en Cartagena' (Jan. 15, 2025).: Contemporaneous court reporting based on the Fiscalía announcement records Betancourt's identity, sixteen-year sentence, two victims and accepted charge. It describes home visits framed as liberation from evil spirits and oils that caused drowsiness before the assaults.
contemporaneous reporting judgment corroboration Vanguardia, 'Condenan a pastor que abusó de mujer en supuesto exorcismo en Cartagena' (Jan. 16, 2025).: Independent contemporaneous reporting quotes the prosecution's judgment announcement and corroborates the sentence, defendant, offense date, exorcism claim and use of oils to incapacitate a congregant.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://caracol.com.co/2025/01/16/pastor-condenado-a-16-anos-de-prision-por-abuso-sexual-en-cartagena/ Corpus classification: prosecutor-sourced-contemporaneous-reporting; evidentiary role: trial-conviction-and-ritual-pretext. SHA-256 e8050c6b585020c04fdcbdd9a1bf121ec4e51b4f444dd5e2c6dd58a9fe422e0a
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://caracol.com.co/2025/08/07/dos-pastores-religiosos-fueron-condenados-por-abuso-sexual-en-cartagena/ Corpus classification: prosecutor-sourced-appellate-reporting; evidentiary role: appellate-affirmance-and-open-cassation. SHA-256 b9a758f10b61b674c7336e3ce89715072c9dcdeff372ddf26bb534961244316b
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.elespectador.com/judicial/a-la-carcel-pastor-de-iglesia-que-abuso-sexualmente-de-feligresas-en-cartagena/?outputType=amp Corpus classification: high-quality-reporting; evidentiary role: judgment-report. SHA-256 bea4389882b96a98bafb2447e556227b30a8a24ad9f382b88d5a018f94a90824
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.vanguardia.com/judicial/2025/01/16/condenan-a-pastor-que-abuso-de-mujer-en-supuesto-exorcismo-en-cartagena/ Corpus classification: contemporaneous-reporting; evidentiary role: judgment-corroboration. SHA-256 730f1eff9b289fa79c66b7636073fe8dc3ced86d11211a0ac97dcadbf7487d56
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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