The News
May 24, 2010
http://www.thenews.pl/international/artykul132214_zakopane-priest-arrested-on-brazil-pedophilia-charges-.html
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Polish priest, Father Marcin Strachanowski (44), arrested last week in Rio de Janeiro, is being charged with using a parish rectory as an “erotic dungeon” and sexually abusing a 16 year-old former altar boy.
Strachanowski, originally from Zakopane, southern Poland, is accused of handcuffing the boy to a bed to “satisfy his sexual whims”, says the prosecutor in Brazil.
The Polish priest – who claims 'graduate status' n Brazil, which will prevent him from being detained in a priuson while he awaits trial – began to “groom” the boy back in 2007 by sending him pornographic material via email. Police had received earlier complaints about the priest’s activity as early as 2004.
Father Strachanowski is accused by prosecutors of sexual abuse and offering money to the boy to remain silent.
Priest Strachanowski - aka Padre Martinho - comes from Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains. He graduated from a seminary in the southern city of Krakow and received holy orders on 18 May 1991. Since 1997 Strachanowski has worked as a missionary priest in Ukraine and Brazil, according to the Rzeczpospolita daily.
The arrest comes in the wake of other high profile arrests in Brazil of Roman Catholic clergy in connection with pedophilia charges.
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