Police on Thursday arrested a
former priest on suspicion of repeated child abuse and the
production and distribution of pornographic material involving
an 11-year-old boy.
The alleged abuse took place in a small town in the
province of Foggia in Italy's southern Puglia region between
2013 and 2014, after Giovanni Trotta, 55, had been relieved of
his priestly functions.
Investigations began after the child's parents reported the
alleged abuse.
In a statement prosecutors said a search of Trotta's home
last November "shed light on a horrifying scenario" involving
the commission by the suspect of "serious crimes against
childhood".
The probe also revealed that the suspect had been banned
from contact with children attending the local parish church and
from providing any form of religious instruction to
prepubescents and that he had been investigated previously for
circulating child porn.
On Thursday police also searched premises in the Lazio city
of Rieti connected to a person to whom the former priest sent
child pornographic material involving the boy.
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