ROME
International Business Times
By UMBERTO BACCHI
A convicted paedophile priest who claimed that an underage prostitution ring was operating inside the Holy Roman Church has been arrested for slander.
Italian prosecutors said that Patrizio Poggi, a 46-year-old former priest who named nine clergymen and three other people as involved in recruiting and abusing young boys in Rome, made up the allegations out of personal animosity.
The Vatican had refused to reinstate Poggi after he served a five-year sentence for abusing teenage boys during his time as a parish priest at the San Filippo Neri church in Rome.
“Poggi conceived and put in action a slanderous plan, presenting circumstances that were false”, prosecutors said.
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