Local pedophile priest jailed in Malta after failed appeal

CANADA
Windsor Star

A pedophile priest who fled southern Ontario two decades ago, only to be convicted of abusing boys at an orphanage in Malta, will spend five years in prison there after a failed bid to overturn his sentence.

Defrocked priest Godwin Scerri — still wanted in Essex County for alleged sex abuse in Emeryville and on Pelee Island — was convicted in 2011 of abusing boys in Malta. His lawyer immediately launched plans to appeal the five-year conviction.

The Malta Today news agency is reporting that Scerri was handcuffed and taken to jail this week after a judge dismissed the appeal.

Scerri abused an undisclosed number of boys at an orphanage in Malta. But he was cleared of a rape charge on a technicality, because the crime allegedly took place in a different location than the one listed on the charge sheet.

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