POLAND
The New York Times
By JOANNA BERENDT
MARCH 25, 2015
WARSAW — A former priest was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison on charges of sexually abusing eight children in Poland and the Dominican Republic, a spokesman for the regional court in Warsaw said.
The former priest, Wojciech Gil, who was charged with committing 10 crimes, eight of which related to the sexual abuse of boys under the age of 15, will also have to pay his victims compensation totaling about $43,000.
Mr. Gil, 36, who did not appear in the courtroom in Wolomin, near Warsaw, on Wednesday, avoided a full trial by offering on Friday to serve a prison term. Under Polish law, Mr. Gil, who led a parish in the Dominican Republic for nearly a decade, did not have to plead guilty. But the deal had to be accepted by the judge and the prosecutors who represented the Polish and Dominican victims, and the prosecutors had to present firm evidence of Mr. Gil’s guilt.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.