VATICAN CITY
New Zealand Herald
By Nick Squires
Sunday Jul 12, 2015
The Vatican’s first child sex abuse trial opened yesterday and closed after six minutes when the defendant failed to turn up.
Jozef Wesolowski, 66, the Holy See’s former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, was supposed to appear before a tribunal within the walls of the Vatican to face charges of paying underage boys for sexual acts in the Caribbean country.
However, the former archbishop was taken to hospital hours before the hearing was due to start, with Vatican officials saying he was in intensive care for an “unexpected” but unspecified illness, probably related to heart problems and stress.
The opening hearing in the trial went ahead anyway, but was swiftly adjourned, with lawyers saying the trial would resume at a later date after Wesolowski has recovered.
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