Italian priests stole victims’ cellphone to hide sex abuse: prosecutors

ROME: Two Italian priests have been arrested for having committed sexual violence on two men, then orchestrating a robbery to steal their cellphones containing incriminating chats and videos, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The two Franciscan priests were among six people arrested in the case that began in April when two men in Afragola, a town near Naples, reported a burglary, said prosecutors in Naples in a statement.

The two perpetrators, carrying clubs and knives, seized the mobile phone from one of the victims and searched in vain for that of the second before fleeing, according to the prosecutor´s office.

The victims immediately made the connection “back to previous relationships with some friars in the Campania region and to sexual abuse and violence suffered,” the statement said.

The ensuing investigation found “substantial evidence” of the sexual abuse “within several monasteries including the Basilica of Saint Antonio of Afragola”. The victims also wrote to the priests´ superiors to denounce the attacks.