Holy Ghost Headquarters pastor convicted of sexually assaulting 3 minors, including a congregant

The pastor of Holy Ghost Headquarters Revival Center in North Philadelphia was convicted late Wednesday of sexually assaulting three children, including a congregant, between 2000 and 2008.

A Montgomery County jury reached the verdict against the Rev. Mark Hatcher, 60, after a two-day trial in Norristown. He was found guilty of rape, statutory sexual assault, and indecent assault in acts at his home in Blue Bell and at a church-owned property in Brewerytown.

After the verdict was read, Hatcher maintained his innocence, saying the outcome of the case was “not right.”

“It’s not fair,” Hatcher told reporters as he left the Montgomery County courthouse. “There’s no truth in it.”

His lawyer, Robert Gamburg, declined to comment Thursday morning.

Even after his arrest in May 2022, Hatcher continued to preach at Holy Ghost, a congregation of several hundred members that worships inside the Met on Broad Street. Hatcher has led the church since 1983, after inheriting the position from his father.

During the trial, prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Caroline Goldstein, presented evidence, including testimony from the three victims, that Hatcher preyed on them when they were children, exploiting his status as a trusted authority figure.

The investigation began in January 2022, when two of Hatcher’s relatives told Whitpain Township police that he sexually abused them at his Blue Bell home, prosecutors said. One of the victims told police Hatcher assaulted her in 2000 when she was 15, fondling her breasts and exposing himself to her after isolating her from her family.

The woman told investigators she was terrified during the encounter and unsure of what to do.

Another victim said Hatcher assaulted him at least five times, beginning in 2007 when he was 6 years old.

The final victim was a former parishioner of Holy Ghost whose mother was in a relationship with Hatcher in 2006. At the time, she said, she was 13, and Hatcher kissed and groped her on two occasions while giving her rides to school.

In another encounter, she said, Hatcher drove her to a house under renovation that Holy Ghost owned in Brewerytown. While she was alone with him in the house, she said, he pinned her to a mattress and raped her, covering her mouth as she screamed for help.

The woman reported what happened to Philadelphia police in 2008, but investigators said the case was never pursued by prosecutors there.

During the trial, Gamburg called nearly a dozen character witnesses who attested to the longtime Pentecostal preacher’s good character and said he has a reputation in the community for being peaceful and nonviolent.

He also suggested that the victims’ accounts were unreliable because of the passage of time and their ages at the time of the alleged assaults.

But the jurors were not swayed.

Hatcher is scheduled to be sentenced by Montgomery County Court Judge Thomas C. Branca on May 23.