Mark Hatcher, 61, of Whitpain Township. (Credit: Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office)
Experts have recommended that a Whitpain Township man be classified as a sexually violent predator after a jury found him guilty of raping three children over an eight year period.
Experts with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offenders Assessment Board have recommended that a Whitpain Township man be classified as a sexually violent predator, as part of a presentencing investigation launched after a jury found him guilty of raping three children over an eight year period.
Mark Hatcher, 61, was found guilty in February on 10 charges including rape, indecent assault of a child, sexual assault, and related offenses. The classification was revealed in a court filing by prosecutors, according to reporting from Carl Hessler Jr. at The Reporter.
The sexually violent predator hearing has been scheduled for August, the report states.
“Now that the sex offender assessment board has made its determination, at the sentencing hearing I will call an expert witness who did this assessment and layout the evidence for why he should be found to be a sexually violent predator,” Assistant District Attorney Caroline Rose Goldstein explained, in Hessler’s report.
Defense attorneys will be able to challenge the classification, the report states, though the presiding judge will make the final determination. Read more on the hearing here.
Hatcher, who serves as a pastor with the Philadelphia-based Holy Ghost Headquarters, showed no emotion upon being found guilty earlier this year, though he was heard stating the verdict was “not right” while leaving the courtroom, according to previous reports.
"It’s not fair. No truth at all was in the matter,” Hatcher said, in the report.
As first reported by North Penn Now, the investigation began on Jan. 3, 2022, when an unnamed male went to the Whitpain Township Police Department to report that he had been sexually assaulted multiple times at Hatcher’s Blue Bell home over a two-year period, according to charging documents. The victim told police that Hatcher allegedly sexually abused him across five separate incidents spanning the summer of 2006 through the summer of 2007.
The victim was between the ages of 6 and 7 years old at the time of the alleged abuse, police said.
That same day, a second victim — an unnamed female — told investigators that she was sexually abused by Hatcher in December 2000 when she was 15 years old. The victim stated that she was cleaning out a closet in her room when Hatcher allegedly entered the room and began a conversation. When the victim turned around, Hatcher was lying on the bed with his robe completely opened, exposing his naked body, the report states. Hatcher then kneeled behind the girl and began tickling and groping her, according to the criminal complaint.
As police continued their investigation, a third victim surfaced who previously filed a complaint with the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit in November 2008, stating that she had allegedly been raped by her pastor when she was 13 years old.
The third victim told police that in 2006, she had gone to dinner in New Jersey with Hatcher, and they stopped to check on a house being renovated along the 2800 block of West Oxford Street on their way home. Inside of the home, Hatcher allegedly pushed the victim onto an old mattress in an upstairs bedroom and began raping her, before stopping and saying he was "going to save [her] for her husband,” according to the complaint.
Police said the victim screamed and attempted to resist, but Hatcher placed his arms over her mouth and held the victim down.
It is unclear if charges were ever filed against Hatcher in connection with the alleged 2006 rape. Philadelphia Police did not respond to this news organization’s request for comment.
All three victims were known to Hatcher, and the alleged incidents were not random acts, investigators said.
Hatcher was arrested and arraigned on May 18, 2022, on felony counts of rape, statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful restraint, sexual assault, corruption of minors, and endangering the welfare of children, along with misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors, endangering the welfare of children, indecent exposure, indecent assault, and open lewdness. He was denied bail at his arraignment, with Magisterial District Judge Katherine McGill stating Hatcher was "a danger to the community.”
Court records show Hatcher underwent a bail review two days later, at which time bail was set at $500,000 cash and he was released from custody after posting.
Following the verdict in February, prosecutors filed a motion to revoke Hatcher’s bail, however Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Thomas Branca permitted Hatcher to remain free while awaiting his sentencing hearing with the stipulation he surrender his passport and avoid having contact with minors as conditions of his bail.
Efforts to secure comment from Holy Ghost Headquarters have been unsuccessful. A review of the church’s social media accounts shows Hatcher has continued his role as a pastor while on bail.
