Austrian Indpendent
January 18, 2011
http://austrianindependent.com/news/General_News/2011-01-18/5996/Priest_in_%27sex_with_maid%27_scandal
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| An Upper Austrian parish priest is accused of having paid nearly 50,000 Euros for a housemaid with whom he then had sex. |
An Upper Austrian parish priest is accused of having paid nearly 50,000 Euros for a housemaid with whom he then had sex.
Judges in Ried, Upper Austria, heard yesterday (Mon) that the priest transferred around 45,000 Euros to a Hungarian middleman last year.
The accused priest said he was looking for a housemaid at that time. He said in court he sent the woman away after a few weeks as he did not like the meals she made. The priest added the woman never washed his but only her own clothes and those of her daughter. After being laid off, the woman told police she had sex with the priest three times.
The Hungarian agent, who is accused of human trafficking and of being the ringleader of an internationally operating prostitution ring, admitted he persuaded the priest to pay him an overall 45,000 Euros before sending the woman over. Around half of the sum were used to finance her mother’s cancer treatment, while around 20,000 Euros were needed to pay off the maid’s debts in her homeland, he claimed in court.
The Hungarian also told judges: "I told the priest he can have sex with her but he will have to pay."
The priest, who has not been suspended despite the claims, denied having a sexual relationship with the woman. He told judges, who summoned him as a witness in the case against the Hungarian, that he was just looking for a housemaid.
The Hungarian defendant remains in custody as the trial continues later this month.
The Roman Catholic Church in Austria is meanwhile going through one of its worst crises.
It emerged last week that 87,393 people left the Church in 2010 – 63 per cent more than in the previous record year 2009 and more in any year since the end of World War Two in 1945.
The 2010 statistics mean 65.1 per cent of the overall 8.5 million people living in the country are Catholics, down from 74 per cent 10 years ago.
The immense exodus of the Catholic Church has been linked to news that hundreds of young Austrians have been abused by the clergy at institutions managed by the Church such as boarding schools over the past decades.
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