Priest, cop, nabbed for sex with minors

(ANSA) - Milan, February 11 - Police on Thursday arrested 11 people, including an HIV sufferer, a priest, youth football coach and a municipal policeman on charges of paying underage boys for sex.
    A 12th suspect is still at large, police said.
    The arrests were made in the northern regions of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna, where police also carried out searches and seized computers in the probe implicating a total of 20 people.
    Prosecutors say that while the four boys aged 15-17 posed as adults on social media, they made no attempt to conceal their true ages when they met their prospective clients in the flesh.
    "They never lied about their age, which was clearly to be perceived when the meetings took place," Preliminary Investigations Judge Alessandra Sabatucci wrote in her bench warrants. "The very nature of the crime demonstrates how the suspects' impulses prevailed over any elementary consideration as to the damaging psychological and physical consequences they caused in their young victims".
    Among the suspects is Claudio Tonoli, 56, who has priors because he was arrested weeks ago in the town of Montichiari, near Brescia, for allegedly requesting unprotected sex while knowing he is an HIV carrier. He was also reportedly picked up years ago after showing child porn to a 13-year-old.
    The suspects also include Father Diego Rota, from the parish of the town of Solza near Bergamo. Police say they discovered a September 10 phone message string in which one of the teens asked him: "How many more times do we have to do it for free?" "We just got started," Father Rota reportedly replied.
    "You still have 15 sessions to go out of the 20 we agreed on. If you do better and stop standing me up, I might give you a break". Local church authorities expressed their "astonishment, dismay and profound pain" at the news.
    Police say the assignations took place in cars, cemeteries, leisure centers, supermarket parking lots, and private residences.
    The investigation was sparked by the mother of one of the teens, who turned to the authorities after she discovered sexually charged messages on her son's cell phone.