Joao Teixeira de Faria aka 'John de Deus'/'John of God' was arrested in December. So far, over 600 allegations of rape and sexual assault were made against him in what prosecutors say could be the worst serial crimes case in Brazil’s history
The Brazilian healer became a prominent spiritual figure in 2010, when Oprah Winfrey visited him and said she almost fainted during the “blissful” encounter. And of course Marina Abramovic and Bill Clinton visited him too! /s
The TV host featured her healing experience in a since-deleted episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show titled 'Leap of Faith: Meet John of God’, in which she described seeing him cut into the breast of a woman without anaesthesia and left feeling “an overwhelming sense of peace".
The 77-year-old's reputation as a renowned 'spiritual healer' crumbled two months ago after he was accused of sexually abusing a Dutch woman.
The woman's claims prompted over 600 similar allegations to arise from around the world.
Their ages at the time of the alleged assaults, which took place from the 1980s through to October 2018, range from nine to 67, according to investigators.
All claim the medium invited them for private consultations, where he turned them to face away from him then performed sexual acts as part of their “cure”.
Last week prosecutors brought new charges against him, including that he and his son Sandro Teixeira de Oliveira threatened a victim with a gun, then offered her money, to withdraw a complaint of sexual abuse again the medium back in 2016.
Brazilian activist Sabrina Bittencourt has now sensationally claimed the celebrity medium ran a baby trafficking operation, in which children were “farmed” in Brazil before being sold to childless couples around the world.
Bittencourt's previous investigations led to the spiritual leader's arrest in December.
She claims young girls were held captive in remote farms, where they were forced to produce babies.
She added that the women were murdered after 10 years of giving birth.
In a video, Bittencourt, whose organisation, Coame, helps women report sexual assault by religious leaders, said she has spoken to women from at least three continents who claimed they bought Brazilian babies from John of God for as much as £40,000, reported the Mirror.
Europe was also listed as one of the three continents where Brazilian babies were bought.
Bittencourt claims she has collected testimony from former members of the John of God cult.
She claims Faria would offer money to poor girls aged 14 to 18 to go and live in mineral mines or farms he owns in the Brazilian states of Goias and Minas Gerais.
There they would become sex slaves and be forced to get pregnant - and their babies would be sold to the highest bidder from other continents, Bittencourt alleges.
She said: “In exchange for food, they were impregnated and their babies sold on the black market.
“Hundreds of girls were enslaved over years, lived on farms in Goias, served as wombs to get pregnant, for their babies to be sold.
“These girls were murdered after 10 years of giving birth. We have got a number of testimonies."
“We have received reports from the adoptive mothers of their children that we sold for between £15,000 and £40,000 in Europe, USA and Australia, as well as testimony from ex-workers and local people who are tired of being complicit with John of God’s gang.”
"My father is a monster."
Among the hundreds of allegations against Faria, his own daughter, Dalva Teixeira, came forward with a shocking statement that she was a victim of her father's crimes.
In an exclusive interview with Brazilian magazine Veja, she said that under the pretence of mystical treatments he abused and raped her between the ages of ten and 14.
She claimed he stopped after she became pregnant by one of his employees, after which her father beat her so severely that she suffered a miscarriage.
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sore_ass_losers ago
Wow, this is a whole new level of accusations. Brazilians are calling him Joao do Capeta, John of the Devil.
I used to be intrigued by this guy, have a book about him even. I recall he'd have a hall full of people dressed in white meditating while he 'operated', he supposedly channeled their energy somehow.
Christian goats: I once read in a book by a hands-on healer who claimed it was all good, that Satan can't heal. Thought she said this was in Corinthians, but couldn't find it later on. Is this so?
think- ago
Vin, do you maybe know what this is referring to?
@Vindicator
Vindicator ago
Here's what Jesus said:
Jesus and Beelzebul (Matthew 12)
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
...33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36
sore_ass_losers ago
Thank you!
I was musing about this in this context, since de Faria did actually help a lot of people. With the first wave of allegations you might call him a really bad sinner, now he appears to be pure evil. Who cooks up schemes such as alleged?
I recall something else about how he operated: He claimed to be channeling spirits of famous, long-dead physicians.
@think-
think- ago
I don't know - I would say that someone who has raped hundreds of women is already 'pure evil'.
He also seems to have had other schemes in order to make money - illegal mining of precious and semi-precious stones, and funeral fraud (people from other countries who died on his premises where made to sign contracts before they died, and they were buried at higher prices than those usually charged).
The healings some people experienced when they consulted him might have been partly due to the allgedly peaceful atmosphere at his place (for those who were not assaulted :-( ), and a placebo effect.
But many people died when they were back home, or their state of health declined.
sore_ass_losers ago
Yeah, not to minimize what he did, or to borrow Whoopi Goldberg's "it's not rape rape", but the first allegations were he used his authority to persuade vulnerable women that having sex with him would be healing. With underage victims, including his own daughter, forcible rape, and 600 allegations that's pure evil. Sex slavery, baby trafficking, and murder I'd even call demonic.
think- ago
IIRC, already the first allegations said that he actually raped the victims.
sore_ass_losers ago
You're correct, there was talk of nonconsensual acts from the beginning, I got it wrong, just reread some original reports.
think- ago
K!