இத்தாலியின் மிக முக்கியமான பிஷப் டான் பியரெனோ ஜெல்மினி சிறுவர்களை பாலுறவுக்கு பயன்படுத்தியதாக குற்றச்சாட்டு

இத்தாலியின் மிக முக்கியமான பிஷப் டான் பியரெனோ ஜெல்மினி சிறுவர்களை பாலுறவுக்கு பயன்படுத்தினார். பலாத்காரம் செய்தார் ஆகிய குற்றச்சாட்டுகளுக்காக விசாரிக்கப்படுகிறார் என்று பத்திரிக்கை செய்திகள் தெரிவிக்கின்றன.

போதை மருந்துக்கு அடிமையானவர்களுக்கு சேவை செய்வதற்காக கட்டப்பட்ட சேவை நிலையங்களில் இருப்பவர்களை இவ்வாறு பாலுறவு பலாத்காரம் செய்தார் என்றும் குற்றச்சாட்டுகள் கூறுகின்றன.

'Celebrity priest' in paedophilia probe
Published: 04 August 2007

A "celebrity" priest, founder of an organisation with more than 280 drug rehabilitation centres around the world, is under investigation in central Italy for alleged paedophilia.

Don Pierino Gelmini is one of the church's best-known faces on Italian television, a close friend of top politicians including former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a rent-a-quote figure with right-wing views on drugs and family values.

In 2004, while still Prime Minister, Mr Berlusconi made the 80-year-old priest, founder of "Comunita Incontro", a public gift of 10 billion lira (£3.5m) for the organisation's work.

But yesterday La Stampa newspaper revealed that the priest has been under investigation, on suspicion of sexually molesting young people, for more than six months. "It seems that the accusations are numerous and coherent," the paper reported. "They revolve around a closed community in which a figure of enormous charisma seems not to have restricted himself to taking care of souls."

The priest's accusers are former residents of Comunita Incontro's centres with a history of drug use. But the magistrates have also interviewed many other possible witnesses, as well as Father Gelmini himself.

No details of the accusations have leaked to the media. Notoriously indiscreet when politicians are under investigation, in this case, perhaps thanks to the power of the church in Italian public life, the magistrates have kept the investigation under wraps.

A friend of the priest, Alessandro Meluzzi, said: "We are anguished, but are pleased to carry the cross that has been thrown on a man who has always served Christ, the church and the lowest of the low." The accusations, he added, came from "a small group of lads who were expelled from the community, who had all the typical problems of drug addicts, and of behaviour and personality as well."

As news of the investigation broke, right-wing politicians rushed to the priest's defence. Maria Burani Procaccini, spokesman on families and children for Forza Italia, Berlusconi's party, said: "In our hearts we say that Don Gelmini is a saint. And we ask the media not to murder the innocent."