Priests handed suspended sentence for indecent assault of minor

An appeals court in northern Greece on Friday convicted two priests for the indecent assault of a boy over a three-year period, handing them each a three-year suspended sentence.

The abuse took place from 2005 to 2008 in a village in Kozani.

The Mixed Jury Court of Appeal of Western Macedonia acquitted a third accused, a monk based in Grevena.

According to the case file, the priests committed indecent acts on the minor, who according to a psychiatric expert called to give evidence “had a mental weakness and inability to resist the actions of the accused.”

The court accepted mitigating circumstances of a clean record and good behaviour when sentencing the two clerics.

The three religious were initially found not guilty at a trial in Kastoria, a decision appealed by the prosecutor. [AMNA]