Milan prosecutors have indicted
Father Alberto Paolo Lesmo, accusing him of paying with cash and
drugs for sex with a minor, ANSA sources said on Friday.
Prosecutors said that between 2009 and 2011, Lesmo paid a
boy aged between 14 and 17 for sex, at times also paying with
illegal drugs.
Another person not connected to the Church has also been
indicted in the case, and prosecutors said that on one occasion
that suspect raped the minor involved.
A preliminary hearing date has not yet been set.
Milan Archbishop Angelo Scola suspended Lesmo on Friday
from his duties as parish priest at Santa Marcellina Church in
the Milan neighborhood of Muggiano, as well as deacon of the
neighboring Baggio district.
The Archdiocese of Milan said it learned of the
investigation on March 2.
It said it also learned that Lesmo was the subject of a
police search at the parish church in 2013, but that "the priest
didn't notify his superiors at the diocese in any way".
"Only in recent days was the archdiocese given permission
to intervene, so as to not obstruct the investigation," the
archdiocese said.
The archidiocese has opened its own investigation, and it
said that at no time was the archbishop or the archidiocese
aware of the crimes for which Lesmo is accused.
Scola on Friday expressed "shock and sorrow" at the news.
ANSA sources said prosecutors had initially asked for
Lesmo's arrest but were denied by a preliminary judge.
Prosecutors then appealed to the Court of Reexamination,
which confirmed the arrest request, but Lesmo's defence attorney
appealed to Italy's Court of Cassation.
It rejected the Court of Reexamination's decision based on
a recent legal change requiring pre-trial custody orders to be
carried out in cases where the crimes in question present a
"current danger".
As Lesmo's alleged crimes occurred in 2009-2011, the Court
of Cassation rejected the arrest request.
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