Symbol of Sumy, photo via umkc.edu

Priest in Ukraine under investigation for child molestation

According to the press service of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs Department in northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy Region, a local priest is being held under suspicion of seduction of minors, but it has not yet been established if accusations are grounded, reports RISU.

According to official information of the police authorities, appropriate investigation is being conducted in the village in question by police and public prosecutor’s office. The accusations against the priest, whose name is being withheld for ethical reasons, are based on evidence obtained from the priest’s ex-wife, his two underage children, and two other boys. The latter two told the investigating officers that for the last six years, the 42-year-old man molested them occasionally to satisfy his sexual passions. According to them, it happened at the priest’s place, when the children visited him or came in to play computer games. His ex-wife maintains that she learned about the sexual humiliation of children from the children themselves and that she herself also saw him molesting an underage boy. Criminal proceedings have been initiated by the district Public Prosecutor’s Office according to Part 2 of Article 156 and Part 2 of Article 153 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the case has been passed on to the police for further investigation.

The priest denies all accusations, but the fact that he had problems with the law in the past does not speak in his favor. He was previously sentenced for child molestation.

The parish priest is being held in accordance with Article 115 of the Criminal and Procedural Code of Ukraine and is in temporary confinement.

The local eparchy bishop calls the accusations against the priest a gross lie and slander. In his comments to RISU correspondent Alla Akimenko, the bishop stated that the priest had diligently worked for the good of the faithful for eight years and no complaints had ever been received against him. Moreover, the village parishioners sent the bishop a letter signed by 32 persons expressing their indignation at the attempts to blacken the name of the priest as they consider the accusations groundless. Another letter was sent in the priests’s defense by his former novice, also a local resident. He maintains that he stayed with the priest from the age of 13 and was never given grounds to suspect him of immorality. “I now have a family, a five-year old daughter and I am very grateful to the father for his help in my receiving education and profession,” wrote the former novice demanding the withdrawal of all accusations from the priest.

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[03/04/2008]

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