Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Claimed spiritual healing or mediumship Criciúma region, Santa Catarina, Brazil · 2024

Brazil: religious leader sentenced to 45 years for sexual crimes against four women seeking spiritual help

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-styled religious/spiritual leader

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The victims sought him out for spiritual support, and the court found the sexual acts were extracted as purported ritual requirements — the claimed spiritual authority is the instrument throughout.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment
  • Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2024-01-01 · conviction and sentence

    Justiça de Santa Catarina (TJSC), Brazil. A religious leader in southern Santa Catarina was sentenced to 45 years in closed regime for rape, sexual violation by fraud and harassment against four emotionally vulnerable women during 2023, committed under the pretext that ritual or spiritual work required sexual acts. In one case he suffocated a victim to stop her calling for help.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • claims that ritual or spiritual work required sexual acts
  • targeting of emotionally vulnerable women seeking religious support

Primary record

Sources

official judiciary release verdict and sentencing report Tribunal de Justiça de Santa Catarina, 'Líder religioso é condenado a 45 anos por crimes sexuais contra fiéis no sul de SC' (2024).

The state judiciary's release on the conviction and 45-year closed-regime sentence.

Related record

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