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Fugitive former abbot arrested over abuse allegations

Catholic Herald
August 22, 2016

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2016/08/22/fugitive-former-abbot-arrested-over-abuse-allegations/

Fr Laurence Soper

Fr Laurence Soper was arrested on Sunday after being returned to the UK from Kosovo

A former abbot of Ealing Abbey accused of child sex abuse offences has been arrested after returning to the UK from Kosovo following a five-year police search for him.

Fr Laurence Soper, 72, was arrested at Luton Airport on Sunday on suspicion of a series of sexual offences allegedly committed at St Benedict’s School in Ealing where he taught in the 1970s and 1980s.

A spokesman for Scotland Yard confirmed the arrest and said Fr Soper was “arrested on suspicion of nine offences of sexual assault committed over a period from 1972 to 1986.”

Fr Soper, who was the abbot of Ealing Abbey from 1991 to 2000, was arrested in May under a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) in Kosovo, but Kosovan courts twice blocked extradition attempts due to the fact that the country has a 30-year statute of limitations.

Fr Soper is now due to appear at Ealing Magistrates’ Court. He was initially arrested in 2010, but failed to report to a London police station in March 2011 after being granted bail.

He was thought to be living in a monastery in Rome when the EAW was subsequently issued for him.

According to reports in Kosovo, Fr Soper lived in the Kosovan city of Pec for several years, going by the name Andrew, and had told neighbours he was writing a book.




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