CLERIC SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS FOR DEFILEMENT

By Harun Kutosi
February 2, 2019
February 02, 2019

https://bit.ly/2WBjq0B

A 60 year old priest was on Friday sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting four young female parishioners one of whom was nine when the offences began.

The sentence is quite lenient being that he would have faced up to 10 years in prison.

The defilement which proceeded even after three of the victims were adults happened between 2001 and 2016.

The priest is also accused of embezzlement of funds to pay one of the ladies for sexual favors.

One of the young ladies now 29 years old received more than 240,000 euros from the cleric. She was charged with “concealment and breach of trust” but was acquitted as it could not be proven that she knew the source of the money she was receiving.

The hearing was held behind closed doors in north east France at the request of the victims who were minors at the start of the offences.

The priest is also forbidden from contacting any of the victims or any activity involving minors. He has also been restrained from being at the Alsace region where the offences were committed.

Numerous claims of abuse by priests have been laid before the Catholic Church in France as victims of such abuse are encouraged to come out and expose perpetrators.

Scandals of this nature were unraveled in the 1990s in Ireland and has been reported globally ever since.

Pope Francis appears to be striving to control the vice with the view that the church must take measures to restore the faith of future generations by being transparent and honest.

The pontiff is set to hold a conference with presidents of Catholic Bishops on February 21st to 24th to discuss the vice by priests and how to protect children who fall prey to the wayward clerics.