João Teixeira de Faria, a self-proclaimed faith healer from Brazil, has been handed a 99-year prison sentence for multiple sexual crimes, that country’s Agencia Brasil reported Monday.
Known as “João de Deus” or “John of God,” Faria gained international recognition for his alleged healing abilities and attracted a following that included media personality Oprah Winfrey.
The popular talk-show host interviewed him 10 years ago and called him “inspiring,” according to The Associated Press.
Have you all heard of John of God? My visit with him is next week. Really fascinating #NextChapter
— Oprah Winfrey (@Oprah) March 11, 2013
For decades, Faria operated from his modest town in Goiás, Brazil, drawing people from all walks of life to seek his assistance.
Whether celebrities or ordinary individuals, they flocked to his house on the outskirts of Brasília, hoping to experience his claimed “healing touch” and controversial psychic surgeries.
However, the tide turned in December 2018 when a colossal scandal unraveled: More than 300 women came forward to say Faria had sexually abused them after they sought his spiritual guidance, CNN reported at the time.
One year later, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for raping four different women.
Since then, other cases have been making their way through the legal system.
The 99-year sentence handed down Monday involved eight victims whom he abused between 2010 and 2018, according to Agencia Brasil.
Metropoles in Brasilia reported that Faria’s total combined prison sentence is now 370 years, nine months and 15 days.
Furthermore, he has been ordered to pay about $20,000 in compensation for moral damages to those eight victims.
Agencia Brasil quoted Faria’s attorney as saying he intends to appeal the decision.
If the scale of his sexual crimes wasn’t disturbing enough, an activist who helped to bring him to justice also accused him of running a “sex slave farm” for a baby trafficking operation.
Sabrina Bittencourt said young girls were held captive and raped to produce babies, who were subsequently sold to childless couples worldwide, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported in February 2019.
She said the girls were murdered after 10 years in the operation.
Just days after Bittencourt made these allegations, she died at age 38, according to the Daily Mail. The report said she took her own life.
Two months later, however, the Columbia Journalism Review published a report about investigative journalists questioning the account of Bittencourt’s suicide and suggesting she might still be alive.
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