LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC
December 21, 2017
A Catholic priest who abused boys at a London school in the 1970s and 1980s has been jailed for 18 years.
Laurence Soper, 74, fled to Kosovo with £182,000 from the Vatican bank in a bid to avoid prosecution for abusing boys at the independent St Benedict’s School, in Ealing, where he taught.
He was extradited to face 19 charges of indecent and serious sexual assault against 10 former pupils.
He is the fourth man to be convicted of molesting children at the school.
Sentencing, Judge Anthony Bate said Soper’s conduct was “the most appalling breach of trust” and he had “subverted the rules of the Benedictine order and teachings of the Catholic Church”.
He said the former abbot and headmaster’s life would now be “overshadowed by the proven catalogue of vile abuse”.
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