Kurzeme District Court sentenced some 83-year-old priest to ten years in prison for sexual violence against five girls in Talsi County.
The man born in 1941 is accused of engaging in sexual acts with five girls between the ages of seven and 16 against their will, in trust and in four cases in a state of helplessness, in order to satisfy his sexual desire through physical contact with the victim’s body between August 2018 and April 2022.
The man has also been accused of committing acts of a sexual nature without physical contact with the victim’s body in order to induce sexual instinct in the victim.
The court found the accused guilty of committing the criminal offences and sentenced him to imprisonment for ten years and probation supervision for three years.
According to the prosecution, when the man was alone with one of the victims, performed sexual acts using the helpless state of the girls, namely, the fact that four of the victimized girls, due to their childhood and individually psychological peculiarities, were unable to understand the nature and meaning of the actions performed with them, as well as using his authority – as a pastor of the congregation – to satisfy his sexual desire through physical contact with the victim’s body.
As a result of the unlawful actions by the accused man, the sexual integrity, morality and normal physical and mental development of the victims were threatened.
The prosecutor is satisfied with the sentence and has no plans to ask the court to prepare the full text of the verdict.
Other individuals involved, however, have the right to appeal the verdict in Kurzeme Regional Court.
The prosecution office notes – if there is even the slightest suspicion that a child may have suffered sexual or other kind of abuse, the State Police should be contacted immediately.
It was previously reported that other priests have been accused of sex crimes in recent years. On the 9th of May, Riga City Court plans to continue to review the criminal case in which the then litigant of St. Albert’s parish in Riga, Krišjānis Dambergs, is accused of sexually abusing a child on premises of a church.
In another case, Rēzekne Aglona diocese priest Pavels Zeiļa was charged of committing a sexual offence together with another man.
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