BRASILIA (Reuters) - Police are investigating accusations by over 200 women that a self-proclaimed Brazilian faith healer, who became a celebrity after appearing on a show hosted by Oprah Winfrey, sexually abused them while they were seeking spiritual guidance and treatment.

A follower of Brazilian spiritual healer Joao Teixeira de Faria, known as "John of God", is seen at "healing center" in his spiritual center, in Abadiania, Brazil December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Adriano Machado

Prosecutors have requested the arrest of João Teixeira de Faria, known as “John of God”, from a court in Abadiania, a small town in central Brazil where he has his spiritual center, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Since the first accusation was aired on television on Friday, 258 women - some of them foreigners - have come forward accusing Faria of abuses, according to the prosecutors’ office for the state of Goias where Abadiania is located.

Faria, who became internationally famous when Winfrey broadcast a report on his psychic healing methods in 2013, maintained on Wednesday that he is innocent, in his first comments since the scandal began. He denied the accusations and said he would comply with the law.

The first accusation was made on a TV Globo program on Friday by Dutch choreographer Zahira Maus who said Faria sexually assaulted her. Globo TV spent three months investigating the story and interviewed a dozen other women who said they had been abused by the healer.

Faria’s fame has been boosted by supposedly miraculous surgeries he claims to have performed with his hands and without anesthesia.

Winfrey said in a statement that she visited Faria’s center in 2012 to explore his controversial healing methods for an episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” that aired the following year, she said.

“I empathize with the women now coming forward and hope justice is served,” she said.

The scandal has shocked the town of Abadiania, whose economy has become dependent on the tourism brought by Faria’s healing center, which opened in 1976. Thousands of Brazilians and foreigners flocked there but the industry has now come to a halt.

Some followers of Faria have rejected the accusations and harassed reporters who descended on the town on Wednesday for the first public appearance of the healer since the scandal broke, receiving him with loud cheers and applause.

“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,” he told them in a brief appearance. “John of God is still alive,” he said.</s>More than 200 women have accused Brazil’s most famous medium and spiritual healer of sexual abuse in a case that is becoming the country’s first major post-#MeToo scandal.

João Teixeira de Faria, 76, known as João de Deus, or John of God, has attended Brazilian presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer, pop stars and celebrities. But in television interviews broadcast on Friday, five women alleged sexual abuse – and then the floodgates opened, and prosecutors have now received more than 200 complaints.

Patrícia Otoni, one of five prosecutors on a taskforce established on Monday in the state of Goiás, where the alleged abuses took place, said some of the allegations “are over 10 years old” but that others were “more current”.

Another prosecutor, Luciano Miranda, told Brazilian TV that potential crimes included rape and sexual abuse.

De Faria denies the charges and a spokesman said he was being tried by the media in an atmosphere of hysteria.

Since 1976, De Faria has performed healing ceremonies and “spiritual surgeries” at the Dom Inácio de Loyola house in Abidiânia, a town of 15,000 people 100km from the capital, Brasília.

Hundreds of thousands of visitors come each year, including some of the most famous actors – mediums, healers and spiritualists are revered in Brazil, a country teeming with religions.

In 2012, De Faria was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. While the attendance is free, he often prescribes “medicines” sold in the same centre, which accepts donations.

In allegations so far reported in Brazilian media, women claimed De Faria took them into a private room then abused them.

Dutch choreographer Zahira Lieneke Mous, 34, first revealed the abuse she alleged had happened four years ago on Facebook. Last Friday she described it to TV Globo’s Pedro Bial on his chatshow, which also broadcast interviews with three other women whose identities were hidden.

Mous claimed she had gone to De Faria looking to cure a sexual trauma and was taken into a private room and made to masturbate him. Afterwards, she said she was given a gemstone. She said she returned to the house and was given special privileges. On another occasion, she alleged De Faria raped her. She said she hesitated in coming forward out of fear. “We don’t have to feel ashamed. He needs to feel ashamed,” she said.

On the same show, American “spiritual guide” Amy Biank, who took groups of foreign visitors to see Abidiânia in the early 2000s, claimed she had entered a room where a kneeling woman was being forced to perform oral sex on De Faria. After she reported what she had seen to employees, she received death threats, she said.

Mário Rosa, a spokesman for De Faria, said he denied the accusations and there should have been an investigation before allegations were broadcast on primetime television.

“We declare his innocence. We respect the right of the women to make these testimonies, but we do not recognise these testimonies as true,” he said.

André Pacheco, 42, a Rio businessman on his seventh visit to Abidiânia since De Faria cured a depression, said that buses of people were still arriving at the centre.

“I have not met anyone in the city who has pointed the finger and said, he is guilty,” he said. “Mr João is a very powerful medium.”

On Wednesday De Faria appeared at the Dom Inácio de Loyola house, where a queue of expectant visitors awaited him along with a melee of reporters. He said he was innocent, local media reported, and stayed just 10 minutes.
Prosecutors in Goiás, Brazil request the preventive detention of medium João de Deus over more than 200 allegations of sexual abuse. João de Deus became internationally famous in 2013, when his controversial psychic healing methods were broadcast on Oprah Winfrey's show Oprah's Next Chapter.