CHILE
Jamaica Observer
SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) — An influential Irish priest was sentenced in Chile to four years probation Tuesday for sexually abusing a young girl while he was the spiritual advisor of an elite school.
John O’Reilly, the local head of the Catholic Church’s ultra-conservative Legion of Christ order, was convicted last month of repeatedly molesting the girl from the time she was five.
A court in Santiago sentenced the 68-year-old priest to four years and one day of “supervised freedom” — a punishment roughly equivalent to probation that involves no prison time — and barred him from working in schools or with children.
Prosecutors had requested a sentence of 10 years in prison.
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