Vatican Opens First Ever Child Sex Abuse Trial As Defendant Hospitalised

The Telegraph
July 10, 2015

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11733351/Former-archbishop-hospitalised-ahead-of-child-sex-abuse-trial.html

Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, the former papal nuncio for the Dominican Republic Photo: Manuel Diaz/AP

The Vatican's first ever child sex abuse trial opened on Saturday - and closed after six minutes after the defendant failed to turn up.

Jozef Wesolowski, 66, the Holy See's former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, was supposed to turn up in a tribunal within the walls of the Vatican to face charges of paying underage boys for sexual acts in the Caribbean country.

But the former archbishop was rushed to hospital just hours before the hearing was due to start, with Vatican officials saying he was in intensive care for an "unexpected" but unspecified illness, probably related to heart problems and stress.

The opening hearing in the trial went ahead anyway, but was swiftly adjourned, with lawyers saying the trial will resume at a later date after Wesolowski has recovered.

The landmark trial is emblematic of Pope Francis's determination to show zero tolerance for child sex abuse by Catholic clergy around the world.

Wesolowski served as the Vatican's nuncio, or ambassador, to the Dominican Republic from 2008 to 2013, during which time he allegedly paid shoeshine boys to perform sexual acts after picking them up along the beachfront in Santo Domingo, the capital.

Wesolowski is accused of sexually abusing minors (AFP)

The Vatican released a charge sheet which revealed new details of the accusations against the Polish prelate.

It said he had "corrupted, through libidinous acts, adolescents aged between 13 and 16," paying them for sexual acts.

On at least one occasion those acts had occurred in a place "exposed to public view".

He had caused "grave damage, comprised of mental disturbance, to the adolescent victims of the sexual abuse."

He had downloaded onto two computers pornographic material featuring children engaged in "sexually explicit acts, either real or simulated".

The pornographic material was allegedly downloaded when he was under house arrest in the Vatican, after being recalled from his post in the Caribbean in 2013.

Wesolowski was defrocked by a Church court in June last year.

The Roman Catholic Church has been accused for years of protecting clergy involved in the sexual abuse of minors.

The courtroom of the Holy See at the opening of the trial of the former Nuncio in Santo Domingo Jozef Wesolowski (AFP)

But after succeeding Pope Benedict XVI in February 2013, Pope Francis vowed to make tackling sex abuse one of the priorities of his papacy.

If found guilty, Wesolowski could face up to seven years in jail, with the sentence likely to be served in an Italian prison, given that the Vatican has very limited detention facilities.

“He seduced me with money,” a shoeshine boy who was 14 when he was abused by the archbishop, told The New York Times.

“I felt very bad. I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do, but I needed the money.”

This is the first sex abuse trial to take place within the walls of the Holy See and Wesolowski is the most senior Vatican figure to be tried for such offences.

His case is one of the most damaging – and embarrassing – to hit the Catholic Church since the clerical sex abuse scandal first erupted in the US more than a decade ago.