A UK pastor has been charged with manslaughter after a grandfather of seven drowned during a home baptism — and she allegedly recorded a video saying she saw him “dancing with Jesus.”
Cheryl Bartley, 48, was live-streaming a ceremony in October 2023 for Robert Smith, 61, on the Facebook page of her Life Changing Ministries, according to the Telegraph.
The stream suddenly cut out as Smith, a born-again believer who has Parkinson’s disease, was being baptized in a kids’ paddling pool in the house in Birmingham, according to the report.
Emergency services were called — but the grandfather of seven was already dead. A post-mortem revealed he died from drowning, West Midlands Police said when announcing charges Wednesday.
The pastor later recorded a video about the death — saying that she saw Smith in heaven, “dancing with Jesus,” according to the Telegraph.
She has been charged with gross negligence manslaughter — an offense which carries a sentence ranging between 1 and 18 years on average in the UK — and is set to appear in a Birmingham magistrates court on May 14.
Smith was originally from Jamaica but had lived in the UK for 25 years. He was a barber in Brixton, London, according to the Guardian.
He had already been baptized but wanted the new ceremony to become a “born-again believer,” the Telegraph reported.
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