Appeal Court Overturns Initial Verdict and Convicts Priest for Sexual Abuse

"Today, the court of appeal overturned the first instance verdict and sentenced Don Gabriele Martinelli to 2 years and 6 months", former student of the Pio X Pre-seminary. This was announced to Ansa by lawyer Laura Sgrò, defender of the victim in the trial for sexual abuse celebrated today in the Vatican. The Vatican Court of Appeal, according to what is reported by the device of the sentence viewed by Ansa, declared Martinelli "guilty of the crime of corruption of a minor". The verdict "For us, this is a historic sentence", says Sgrò. "After so many years, not only the facts have been recognized but also evidently the suffering and pain of my client who finally got justice". The story is that of the abuses at the San Pio X Pre-seminary, which hosts the Pope's altar boys, but linked to the diocese of Como that manages the institute through the Opera don Folci. The appeal trial saw today, in partial reform of the first instance sentence, the conviction of Don Gabriele Martinelli to two and a half years in prison for corruption of a minor. In the first instance trial, both Don Martinelli, then accused of sexual violence, and Don Enrico Radice, former rector of the Pre-seminary, accused of complicity, were acquitted. The facts subject to the trial took place between 2007 and 2012, against L.G., a companion 7 months younger than Don Martinelli. It is the first time that a conviction for abuses committed in the same Vatican territory has been pronounced.