India: Pentecostal pastor given life for raping a girl after telling her family she was possessed and needed 'healing prayers'
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
Pentecostal pastor conducting deliverance and healing prayer for local families
Organization
No organization assigned
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
He told the family their daughter was possessed by evil spirits and that she required special healing prayers, and it was that claim — accepted by parents who believed in his power to deliver her — which put the girl alone with him.
- Exorcism or deliverance
- Spiritual healing or treatment
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2022-08-29 · conviction and sentence
Fast Track Special Court (POCSO), Manjeri, Malappuram district, Kerala, India. Jose Prakash, 51, a Pentecostal pastor, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape of a thirteen-year-old girl on 17 and 18 February 2016. He had persuaded the family that their daughter was possessed by evil spirits and, under the guise of conducting 'special healing prayers', isolated and repeatedly raped her. The offending came to light when the girl's mother saw her leaving the pastor's room late at night with her clothes inside out; a Childline report in Malappuram followed and he was arrested on 22 March 2016. He was ordered to pay compensation of ₹2 lakh to the girl and ₹50,000 to a boy also affected.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- the claim that the girl was possessed by evil spirits
- 'special healing prayers' used as the occasion to isolate her from her family
- the family's belief in his power to deliver their daughter
Cited record
Sources
- national press court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Christian Pastor sentenced to life for raping a minor', report of the Manjeri Fast Track POCSO Court sentence of 29 August 2022.
Report of the sentence naming Jose Prakash, 51, the Manjeri fast-track POCSO court and the date, the February 2016 offence dates, the claim that the thirteen-year-old was possessed by evil spirits and the use of 'special healing prayers' to isolate her, the mother's discovery, the Childline report and the 22 March 2016 arrest, and the compensation ordered.
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://hindupost.in/news/christian-pastor-sentenced-to-life-for-raping-a-minor/ Corpus classification: national-press-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report.
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-28 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear research cycle 2026-07-28 (manual retrieval and reading)
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Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
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- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
- 2014 · Philadelphia, PA, USA Schaible: 3rd-degree murder, second child dead of untreated pneumonia
- 2001 · London, UK Victoria Climbié: murder convictions; possession belief; Laming Inquiry followed
- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)