Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski Stored over 100,000 Child Porn Videos

news.com.au
September 29, 2014

http://www.news.com.au/world/archbishop-jozef-wesolowski-stored-over-100000-child-porn-videos/story-fndir2ev-1227073931974

Awaiting trial...former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski is under house arrest after a pre-trial detention at the Vatican for the sexual abuse of underage boys. Picture: Supplied. Source: Supplied

MORE than 100,000 child porn videos and photos have been found on the computer of former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski who was arrested at the Vatican earlier this week.

The videos and photos were stored on a computer in his office at the Holy See diplomatic compound in the Dominican Republic.

The International Business Times reports that the discovery of Wesolowski’s hoard of porn comes as he was arrested earlier in the week for the alleged sexual abuse of underage boys.

As part of an investigation into the abuse Vatican detectives analysed the 66-year-olds computer which he used in his office in Santo Domingo, where he served as Holy See envoy from 2008 to 2012.

Disgraced...former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski has already been defrocked after the Vatican's canon law court found him guilty in June and imposed its toughest penalty: laicization, or returning to life as a layman. Picture:AP/Manuel Diaz Source: AP

The Il Corriere della Sera newspaper reported that some of the horrors deceives found on the computer included around 160 videos showing teenage boys forced to perform sexual acts on themselves and on adults and more than 86,000 pornographic photos which were methodically archived in several category-based folders.

Investigators said that at least another 45,000 pictures were deleted, while another supply of material was found on a laptop Wesolowski used during his trips abroad.

The former clergyman was placed under house arrest in a pre-trial detention at the Vatican earlier this week. He has been detained in a small room in the basement of the Collegio dei Penitenzieri, a convent located in the same building hosting the Vatican’s court and military police in the well-known Santa Marta square.

Shocking...Vatican detectives found over 100,000 child porn videos and images as part of their investigation into former Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski. Picture: Franco Origlia/Getty Images Source: Getty Images

Investigators are also looking into whether there was a network of people who helped him set up sexual encounters and if he committed abuse during his previous posts around the world.

He is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be investigated for sex abuse, and the first top papal representative to receive a defrocking sentence. He has been charged with sexually abusing minors and child porn possession and could face up to seven years in the Vatican’s tiny jail.

Before arriving in Santo Domingo, Wesolowski served as apostolic nuncio in Bolivia and Central Asia - covering Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kirghizstan and Uzbekistan - after holding less prominent roles in Southern African, Costa Rica, Japan, Switzerland, India and Denmark.

He was recalled to Rome last year, after Dominican Republic media alleged he hired ‘rent boys’ and was subsequently banished from the clergy, after a canonical court found him guilty of sex abuse.

His trial is expected to start in January.