Holy Ghost Headquarters pastor sentenced to years in state prison for raping and assaulting children

Montgomery County Court Judge Thomas Branca told the Rev. Mark Hatcher that two versions of the North Philadelphia pastor had been presented in his courtroom Thursday.

One was an active, beloved community leader who helped countless people through his ministry at Holy Ghost Headquarters Revivalist Center. The other was a serial predator who used that authority to rape a teenage congregant and sexually assault two children he was related to.

That dichotomy led Branca to sentence Hatcher, 61, to five years and three months to 12 years in state prison after a crowded hearing in Norristown filled with dozens of the pastor’s supporters, including former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr.

“I certainly need to give some credit to the defendant, who has given to the community and given to others. That does carry some weight in my calculations,” Branca said. “But the heavier weight is given to the crimes he committed.”

Branca also ruled that Hatcher meets the criteria for a sexually violent predator. He will remain on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life and must seek mandatory mental health treatment.

In February, a jury convicted Hatcher of rape, statutory sexual assault, and indecent assault in separate acts that took place between 2000 and 2008 at his home in Blue Bell and an abandoned property his church owned in the city.

Hatcher’s attorney, Andrew Alston, asked Branca on Thursday for a sentence of partial confinement, such as house arrest, saying that any time in prison would be a “death sentence” for Hatcher, given his age. He reminded Branca that his client had never been arrested before this case, and said that he presents a low risk of reoffending.

Addressing the judge directly, Hatcher maintained his innocence, and said he hoped God would heal the three victims.

“Your honor, I’m asking you, and I stand in my innocence, to have leniency on me,” Hatcher said. “My wife needs me, my family needs me.

“I am not a threat to society. I’m a help to society.”

But Assistant District Attorney Caroline Goldstein chastised Hatcher’s comments, saying he seemed to view his prosecution and conviction as a “witch hunt” against him.

“The reality is that this defendant thrives on power, thrives on all of these people coming together to say he’s the greatest,” she said, referring to Goode and other supporters who testified or wrote letters on Hatcher’s behalf. “And we’ve seen how he thrives on power in how he treated the victims.”

The investigation began in January 2022, when two of Hatcher’s relatives told Whitpain Township police that he sexually abused them years earlier 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.

Another victim said Hatcher assaulted him at least five times, beginning in 2007 when he was 6 years old. The assaults gradually escalated, he said, starting with Hatcher forcing him to undress and eventually fondling the boy and forcing him to perform sex acts.

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 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 male victim’s mother testified Thursday that her son suffered lifelong effects from the “secret, sinister, systemic sexual assault,” including depression and emotional outbursts he still struggles with.

Hatcher’s actions had torn their family apart, she said, and had led her to dwell on dark thoughts of enacting vigilante justice against him.

“His victims had to watch him for years parade around arrogantly, acting like he was untouchable,” she said. “He believed he was above these victims, above the law, and above God.”