UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald
Fr Laurence Soper was arrested on Sunday after being returned to the UK from Kosovo
A former abbot of Ealing Abbey accused of child sex abuse offences has been arrested after returning to the UK from Kosovo following a five-year police search for him.
Fr Laurence Soper, 72, was arrested at Luton Airport on Sunday on suspicion of a series of sexual offences allegedly committed at St Benedict’s School in Ealing where he taught in the 1970s and 1980s.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed the arrest and said Fr Soper was “arrested on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault committed over a period from 1972 to 1986.”
Fr Soper, who was the abbot of Ealing Abbey from 1991 to 2000, was arrested in May under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in Kosovo, but Kosovan courts twice blocked extradition attempts due to the fact that the country has a 30-year statute of limitations.
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