Brazil 'miracle' healer faces arrest after more than 200 women accuse him of sexual abuse
Joao Teixeira de Faria, who appeared on Oprah in 2013, maintains his innocence after hundreds of victims have come forward.
Thursday 13 December 2018 07:06, UK
A self-proclaimed faith healer is being investigated by police after more than 200 women accused him of sexual abuse.
Joao Teixeira de Faria, who uses the name Joao de Deus in his practice and is known as "John of God", became a celebrity after appearing on a show hosted by Oprah Winfrey in 2013.
Prosecutors have requested his arrest from a court in Abadiania, a small town in central Brazil where his spiritual centre is located, a law enforcement source told Reuters.
The first accusation was made on television on Friday by Dutch choreographer Zahira Maus, who said Faria sexually assaulted her.
Since then, 258 women - some of them foreigners - have come forward accusing Faria of abuse, according to the prosecutors office.
The women's accusations against Faria include fondling their bodies, intercourse and making them practice oral sex on him while he allegedly said he was possessed by a spiritual entity, according to victims interviewed by local media.
Faria has maintained that he is innocent in his first comments since the scandal began.
He denied the accusations and said he would comply with the law.
"Brothers and my dear sisters, I thank God for being here. I want to comply with Brazilian law. I am in the hands of the law. John of God is still alive," he told reporters on Wednesday.
Winfrey said that she visited Faria's centre in 2012 to explore his controversial healing methods for an episode of Oprah's Next Chapter that aired the following year.
"I empathise with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served," she said in a statement.
Faria's healing centre in Abadiania opened in 1976 and attracted thousands of Brazilians and foreigners, but the industry has come to a halt since the scandal.
The healer's fame was boosted by supposedly miraculous surgeries he claims to have performed with his hands and without anaesthesia.