Brazilian spiritual healer accused of abuse by hundreds of women

Joao Teixeira de Faria. Photo / AP

Brazilian police said that Joao Teixeira de Faria, a celebrity spiritual healer accused of sexually abusing more than 300 women, has turned himself in.

Known as João de Deus - or "John of God" - Teixeira had missed a deadline to comply with an arrest warrant, and was considered a fugitive.

Brazilian prosecutors had included his name on Interpol's wanted list.

The case came to light when 13 women went on national television to make sexual violence accusations against the faith healer.

The Prosecution Service of the state of Goiás confirmed it has since received 355 reports of abuses committed by Teixeira from women across Brazil and abroad. Teixeira has insisted that he is not guilty of any alleged abuse.

Among the accusers is Teixeira's daughter, Dalva Teixeira, 49, who called her father a "monster" and alleged she was beaten and raped by the medium until she was 14. "He used to say that God didn't exist, that he was God," she told the Brazilian press.

Teixeira claimed the abuse stopped when she became pregnant by one of her father's employees, and that the faith healer beat her and caused her to have a miscarriage.

"None of those women is lying", said Teixeira, about those who have stepped forward. "I know because I went through it, I suffered."

Many of the reports of abuse are similar, involving unaccompanied women being invited to have private spiritual treatment sessions with Teixeira, in which he allegedly sexually assaulted them.

Teixeira is a celebrity in Brazil and around the world for his renowned ability to perform spiritual "cures".

In 2012, Oprah Winfrey visited Teixeira's retreat to film an episode of her interview series Oprah's Next Chapter, the video of which has now been taken down from the presenter's YouTube page.