Priest convicted for child abuse

Supporters of Father Slawomir S. speak with journalists outside the courtroom in Rawa Mazowiecka. Photo: PAP/ Grzegorz Michalowski

Father Slawomir S. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws) had pleaded not guilty and he was not present in court yesterday. The clergyman had led a parish in Rawa Mazowiecka, central Poland.

The five victims had served as altar-boys for the priest, and all of them had been under fifteen at the time of the abuse.

The priest has been banned for life from working with minors, and he is also forbidden from making any contact with the victims in future.

One of the abused, now an adult, told the TVN24 news station that he finally stepped forward as he “would have been furious if the priest abused someone else.”

The court heard that the clergyman had endeavoured to make the boys financially dependent on him, paying them to do odd jobs such as raking leaves at the rectory. He also paid for some of their phone bills.

In spite of the evidence, including recordings made of phone conversations, and the verifications of psychologists who had spoken with the victims, some local parishioners refused to accept the judgement.

A number of the priest's supporters attended the District Court in Rawa Mazowiecka yesterday. One remarked outside the courtroom that the altar-boys had “taken advantage of the good will of the priest.”

However, Tomasz Szczepanek from the District Prosecutor's Office commented that for such a conviction “the evidence must be strong.”

The Roman Catholic Church has been beset by child abuse scandals in 2013.

Among the most publicised cases concerns the former papal nuncio in the Dominican Republic, Arcbishop Jozef Wesolowski.

The archbishop, as well as another Polish priest, have been accused of abusing boys in the Caribbean country over a period of several years.

Poland's Attorney General received investigation files from his counterpart in the Dominican Republic last month. (nh)