Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Afro-Brazilian religious settings Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil · 2022

Brazil: pai de santo convicted of raping twelve terreiro members through simulated spirit incorporation

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

pai de santo of a terreiro

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The simulated incorporation is the criterion in ritual form: victims believed the entity, not the man, demanded the acts — the terreiro's ritual grammar was counterfeited into an instrument of rape. The record documents an individual's fraud, not Afro-Brazilian religion.

  • Ritual, oath, or initiation
  • Threatened spiritual consequence
  • Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2022-01-01 · conviction and sentence

    Justiça de São Paulo; Ministério Público de São Paulo. Vagner Meleiro, a pai de santo in Sorocaba's Jardim Zulmira, was convicted of raping twelve proven victims — ten abused repeatedly over more than a decade — by simulating spirit incorporation to convince terreiro members that sex with him was required spiritual work, and by claiming control over life and death. His initial sentence of 136 years was reported increased to 175 years on appeal.

Appellate history

  1. 2023 · undefined

    undefined

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • simulated spirit incorporation to present sex as required 'spiritual work'
  • claimed power over life and death

Primary record

Sources

official prosecuting authority conviction release Ministério Público de São Paulo, 'Homem que se apresentava como pai de santo em Sorocaba é condenado por estupros' (2022).

The state prosecution service's release on the conviction and the simulated-incorporation mechanism.

Related record

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