Bail for priest in abuse case

The Telegraph
July 24, 2018

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/bail-for-priest-in-abuse-case-247261

Kochi: Kerala High Court on Monday granted bail to a Christian priest, arrested on the charge of sexually exploiting a married woman for years with three other priests after blackmailing her with her confession secrets.

Johnson V. Mathew, a counsellor of the Malankara Orthodox Church, was arrested from Kozhencherry in Pathanamthitta district on July 13 and charged with "outraging the modesty of a woman".

Mathew, the second priest to be arrested in the case, had applied to the high court after a magistrate in Thiruvalla rejected his bail plea.

Granting bail, Justice Rajavijayaraghavan directed the priest to surrender his passport, cooperate with the investigation and not enter the limits of the police station where the woman lives.

Police had earlier arrested Job Mathew, the vicar of a local church, who had surrendered after the high court dismissed his anticipatory bail plea and those of two other priests, all of whom belong to the Malankara Orthodox Church.

The court had observed that they had acted as "predators" and taken "undue advantage" of the woman.

Abraham Varghese and Jais K. George, the other two accused priests, have petitioned the Supreme Court seeking anticipatory bail.

The incident had come to light after an audio clip of a purported conversation between the woman's husband and a Church official about the alleged sexual abuse was circulated on social media.

Following this, the husband had in June lodged a complaint with the Church, accusing five priests of using his wife's secret confession to "blackmail and sexually abuse" her.

The police later registered a case accusing four priests against whom they said they had found prima facie evidence.

According to the woman's police statement, the accused vicar had sought sexual favours from her after she had made a confession to him about the alleged abuse by some of the other priests, threatening to otherwise publicise her confession.

She has alleged the vicar would speak about sexual activities over the phone and that the abuse continued till 2012.

Johnson Mathew, according to the complaint, was her senior in college and got in touch with her over WhatsApp. Later, his messages turned explicit and he morphed her face on a nude picture of another woman and threatened to circulate it over the Internet, the complaint says. PTI