A nun has been arrested by cops on suspicion of causing the death of at least 10 elderly care home patients in a campaign that included torture and false imprisonment, as well as illegal practice of medicine and bogus faith healing.
Civil Police have formally accused Sister Adelaide Dantas of being part of an organisation that was systematically responsible for ill-treatment and negligence during her time at the Instituicao de Longa Permanencia Vila Vicentina Padre Liberio in Divinopolis, Brazil.
Images obtained by Civil Police show elderly residents tied up or locked in their bedrooms.
They also show wounds left untreated, buckets used as makeshift toilets, and rooms with bars and a padlock.
Dantas, 54, is one of 15 people accused over alleged crimes at the care home, which the nun left in May 2022.
Among the accused are a doctor, nurse technicians and assistants, a lawyer, and admin workers.
Crimes committed there, said police, include torture, false imprisonment, illegal practice of medicine, faith healing, fraudulent misrepresentation, and homicide.
Civil Police chief Adriene Lopes told local media: “We have testimonials from employees who report that they [the elderly] were punished.
“‘If you do that, you’ll be restrained, you’ll go to the room that was used as a cell that had bars and a padlock.’
“So there was this type of threat that was demonstrated in the proceedings by the testimonies of the employees who worked at the Vila.”
A nurse who worked at the care home in 2021 said: “I noticed the ill-treatment, I noticed some attacks, right?
“On some elderly people, because of their cries for help, of ‘Oh, help me’, in the bathroom. And this was frequent, every day.”
A police report said Dantas acted as a doctor in the care home, despite not being qualified.
It said: “She administered medication, she suspended medication on a whim, there was no medical follow-up.”
Police detailed how at least two elderly residents died there after being found to have low blood oxygen saturation levels.
The care home was run by the Sociedade de Sao Vicente de Paulo – an organisation founded and run by Christian laymen.
It now runs under the supervision of the National Health Surveillance Agency.
Investigations are ongoing.