Posted on 04/08/2026 2:05:07 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Cheryl Bartley, 48, was charged with one count of gross negligence manslaughter in relation to her role as a pastor during the baptism, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
Bartley, of Erdington, will appear at Birmingham Magistrates' Court on 14 May.
The BBC previously reported that the man was taking part in the ceremony carried out by Life Changing Ministries in a small pool in the property's garden.
The baptism event was streamed live on the church's Facebook page, but the stream was cut during the event and the video later removed.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Yeah, she should have sprinkled him and pretended it was a baptism... WHAT does that word ‘baptism’ literally mean... Christ was ‘baptized’, fully immersed ... not some play acting sprinkling.
My bad. I watched the video again. It was awful. There were two men in the dunk tank (plus the female dunker). The man who drowned was behind the man I was talking about. He was under water face down a long time, right next to the next man getting dunked.
The person being baptized must have been held under water. Otherwise, they easily could have gotten up.
2 things:
1) You can’t make this up.
2) Blacks can’t swim. You didn’t know that?
from AI:
Cheryl Bartley, a 48-year-old pastor from Birmingham, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter on April 8, 2026, following the death of 61-year-old Robert Smith during a baptism ceremony.
The incident occurred on October 8, 2023, during a service for Bartley’s congregation, Life Changing Ministries, held at a private home in the Erdington area. Details of the event include:
Baptism Setting: The ceremony was conducted in a small outdoor paddling pool (often described as a “kiddie pool”) located in the property’s back garden.
The Incident: Robert Smith, a barber from London who had traveled to Birmingham for the event, drowned during the immersion process. Reports from the BBC noted that Smith suffered from Parkinson’s disease.
The event was being filmed and livestreamed on Facebook. The stream was cut abruptly when the situation became a medical emergency and the video was subsequently removed.
Rescuers, lifeguards, say that most drownings are quiet and someone close by will never know what is going on. We have all been led to believe there is much kicking and screaming, but that is not the case most of the time.
I wonder if this photo of her was before or after the incident?
Hmmmm…. quite a throne she has there. 😇😇
The victim made his choice.
Female “pastor”. What could possibly go wrong? Defy Scripture and ... well ...
So she’s a flashy flim-flam “pastor”. Absolutely disgusting.
“... in a small pool in the property’s garden.”
How the heck does that even happen? I could see if he was getting dunked in the Amazon where they have all those psycho bitey fishes...
did they forget to tell him not to breathe in?
All he needed was to pinch his nose and hold his breath. However, it is a possibility that the baptizee was intoxicated and couldn’t avoid chocking on the water. A baptism meriting both Heaven and the Darwin Award.
he didnt struggle/panic and fight trying to get his face out the water so he could breathe? The dunkers didn’t recognize he was struggling/panicking?
Did he actually drown, or did he have a heart attack, and she couldn’t pull him out of the pool? He’s not a small man nor a young one either.
I will baptize you to death! Too many demons? This guy just didnt make it.
Well, his life DID change...
More justification for sprinkling over dunking.
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