Pastor faces manslaughter charge after man dies in baptism gone wrong
A live-streamed ritual meant to save a man's soul exposed stunning negligence and a fatal lack of oversight
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In October of 2023, a man named Robert Yap (also known as Robert Smith), who had Parkinson’s disease, traveled hundreds of miles, to Erdington, Birmingham in England, to get baptized. He had already been baptized as a young man but the 61-year-old wanted to go through the ritual once more as a “born again believer.”
Doing the honor was Cheryl Reid-Bartley, a self-described “apostle” and the founder of Life Changing Ministries.
According to news reports from that time, Reid-Bartley set up a large kiddie pool in the backyard of a home in the area and began live-streaming the ceremony, which featured a dozen spectators. It was her first-ever baptism, the reports said, and she supposedly “submerged his head backwards in the water as part of the ceremony.”
The man apparently drowned at some point in the process.
While videos of the ceremony were quickly taken down, there are versions (with blurring) that show him lying still in the water as others get baptized right next to him. No one in the crowd bothered to pull him out; it’s unclear if they even knew he was in there.
A day later, Reid-Bartley posted another video online explaining that this was definitely not her fault:
In a 54-minute video on Life Changing Ministries' public Facebook page, the church minister fights her tears as she celebrates the man's life. She says Mr Yap had caught a "glimpse of heaven" and "didn’t want to come back, he just passed on".
Ms Reid-Bartley adds: “This man wanted to secure his place in heaven. The Lord had a conversation. You know how a baptism goes okay... You know how it goes, that many people get a glimpse of heaven... You know, some come up and they see God Himself. They see the father. He (Mr Yap) had a glimpse of heaven... This man wanted to secure salvation.”
She later says: “I was taken to heaven instantly to see Robert Yap... He’s young, he’s dancing with Jesus in the garden.”
Riiiiight. This man feared he was going to Hell if he didn’t get baptized, and in the middle of the baptism, we’re told he suddenly decided he wanted to go to Heaven immediately. And wouldn’t you know it, Reid-Bartley caught up with him there during one of her visits.
That’s not the kind of “life changing” anyone had in mind.
Reid-Bartley was initially arrested after that incident, but nothing came of it. An investigation would need to take place to understand whether this was some freak accident that no one could have seen coming or if Reid-Bartley could have done something—anything—to save his life.
It appears that law enforcement is now ready to put the blame on her.
Yesterday, she was officially charged with manslaughter.
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 said.
…
Malcolm McHaffie, the head of the special crime division at the CPS, said: “Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings. We have worked closely with West Midlands police as it has carried out its investigation.
It’s entirely possible that Reid-Bartley didn’t intend for any of this to happen, but she was the one responsible for everyone’s safety and she failed to do her one job. If she’s guilty, it would be deeply (and morbidly) ironic this this ritual, which is loaded with fictional eternal stakes, was carried out with shockingly little regard for the very real person involved.
That regard meant taking charge of a ritual she’d never done before, involving a man with a serious medical condition, in a backyard kiddie pool, while live-streaming for an audience. Where was the preparation? The oversight? There’s no evidence of any of it. They put blind trust in a God who wasn’t going to protect them. And despite her words 24 hours later, this wasn’t a spiritual success story in which the victim got a “glimpse of heaven” and chose not to return. This was a man’s needless death regardless of who caused it.
If you look at Reid-Bartley’s social media pages, you’d never know any of this even happened. She’s just moved on with her life as if nothing ever happened. That must be easy to do when you assume any harm you cause is just part of God’s Master Plan.
Thank goodness this case won’t be judged by religious leaders but by secular authorities who care about evidence and accountability. Her beliefs won’t shield her from responsibility this time.
Wow. Losing track of a disabled person in a kiddie pool doesn't exactly scream "caring for the least of these."
𝐼𝑡’𝑠 𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑖𝑑-𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒’𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒𝑡𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑗𝑜𝑏.
A quick Google search of UK manslaughter law shows that she is likely guilty of at the very least involuntary manslaughter.
𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎𝑡 𝑅𝑒𝑖𝑑-𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑦’𝑠 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑠, 𝑦𝑜𝑢’𝑑 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑. 𝑆ℎ𝑒’𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑖𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑑.
This reckless disregard for human life demonstrates her likely guilt.
Having grown up in a church that did adult baptism, the typical procedure is to dunk the baptisee and bring them back up, not dunk and leave them. The fact that more baptism were carried out while no one even noticed shows that her crime isn't just her negligence, but systemic to her church.
Usually, when we have a case of religion killing someone, it is passive medical negligence of parents praying instead of taking their children to the hospital. For it to be the pastor actively involved in the killing? That's some next level bullshit.