UNITED KINGDOM
Digital Journal
By Arthur Weinreb
Sep 2, 2012
London – After failing to locate Father Laurence Soper when he failed to appear at a London police station, the London Metropolitan Police obtained the warrant. It is believed the priest may be in a monastery somewhere.
Soper taught at St. Benedict’s School, part of Ealing Abbey, in west London when the sexual abuse is alleged to have occurred. The cleric served as abbot of Ealing Abby between 1991 and 2000.
In June 2010, a man now in his 40s reported to police he had been sexually assaulted by Soper when he attended the school as a child. Three months later, Soper was arrested on suspicion of historic sexual assault. The 68-year-old was released and required to report to a west London police station in March, 2011. After his release, it is believed he went to Italy. The monk left the Italian monastery he was living in on March 4, 2011, presumably to go back to London to report to the police. But he failed to appear.
A spokeswoman for the London Metropolitan Police is quoted by The Press Association as saying, “Officers have made extensive enquiries to trace him without success and a European Arrest Warrant for his arrest has been obtained.” The warrant was obtained more than a year after Soper became a fugitive when a new investigator took over the case.
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