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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Hannah Al-Othman

Pastor charged over drowning of man at baptism ceremony in Birmingham

Birmingham magistrates court: it is a tall, gothic-style redbrick Victorian building with tall towers and turrets and an ornate doorway up a flight of stone steps.
Cheryl Bartley will appear at Birmingham magistrates court on 14 May. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

A woman has been charged with manslaughter after a man died during a baptism ceremony in Birmingham.

Robert Smith, 61, from Brixton, south London, drowned during the ceremony, which took place at a home in Slade Road, Erdington, in 2023. The ceremony, which involved a paddling pool in a back garden, was filmed and livestreamed, with a congregation of about a dozen people looking on.

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