Wojciech Gil
WOLOMIN, Poland, Sunday March 29, 2015 – Wojciech Gil, a former priest convicted of abusing minors in the Dominican Republic and Poland, was sentenced to seven years in jail by a Polish court on Wednesday.
The court in Wolomin found Gil guilty of abusing six minors in the Dominican Republic between 2009 and 2013, as well as two in Poland in 2000 to 2001.
Possession of child pornography and illegal possession of a firearm were also included in the charges.
Gil, 37, could have faced up to 15 years behind bars if he was convicted following full court proceedings.
Instead, after initially pleading not guilty, the former priest sought a settlement and a seven-year prison term, which avoided a full trial. That was accepted by prosecutors, who represented the Dominican and the Polish victims.
Gil was also ordered to pay a total of 155,000 zlotys (about US$41,000) in atonement to the victims.
The former priest was defrocked last month at his own request.
Gil has been in custody since February last year, and the time he has spent in prison will be deducted from the sentence under Polish law.
His trial was conducted in Poland because that country has no extradition agreement with the Dominican Republic, making a trial there impossible.
It was not immediately clear how the verdict would be received in the Dominican Republic, where prosecutors revealed the case and requested a severe punishment.
Gil’s case is reportedly related to that of former Holy See ambassador to the Dominican Republic, former Polish archbishop Jozef Wesolowski.
The Vatican has defrocked Wesolowski – the harshest punishment under canon law – and is weighing whether to indict him on allegations that he paid Dominican boys to masturbate while he recorded them with his mobile phone.
A Polish investigation into his case is said to be stalled by a lack of evidence.
Wesolowski’s case attracted international attention, given that he was a papal nuncio, had been ordained both a priest and a bishop by St John Paul II, and was the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to have been accused of sex abuse.