(Rome) Two Italian religious figures have been arrested for “sexual violence” after organizing a burglary aimed at stealing the phones of their alleged victims and thus making the evidence disappear, the Naples (South) prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.
The investigation began in April when two men living in Afragola, a town near Naples, were burgled and the perpetrators took only a mobile phone, fleeing before finding the second, according to a statement from the prosecutor’s office.
This burglary “presented anomalies” and the victims immediately made the connection with the sexual violence inflicted on them by Franciscan brothers in institutions for which they worked, he explains.
An investigation was immediately opened, revealing the reality of these attacks carried out “within several monasteries including the Basilica of Sant’Antonio d’Afragola”.
The plaintiffs themselves wrote to the superiors of the religious, through their lawyer, to denounce the attacks.
According to the prosecution, the clerics forced their victims to have sex in exchange for clothes, food or employment.
“In 2016, I met the brother on a dating chat,” one of the plaintiffs was quoted as saying by the daily. The Corriere della Sera“The brother didn’t just have sex with me, he asked me to find him other boys,” he said, referring to “orgies.”
According to Italian media, one of the victims is an Italian, the other is a man from a country outside the European Union.
The phone taps also revealed that the burglary had been ordered to rob the two men of their phones “containing images and discussions that were at the very least embarrassing and which were likely to create serious problems for some of the monks in the monasteries.”
The same wiretaps established that the priest of Afragola, who was arrested on Thursday, had ordered the burglary, for which he is being prosecuted.
Four other people, two executors and two intermediaries, were also arrested, according to the prosecution.
The Archbishop of Naples, Mimmo Battaglia, said in a statement on Thursday that he had suspended the priest.