NORWAY
News in English
A Catholic priest in his 30s told a court in Bergen on Tuesday he didn’t know 16 was the age of consent in Norway. The priest had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl during the summer, who he described as the “love of his life”.
In a statement to the court, the priest said he thought the age of consent was 14 years, as in other countries he has lived in. “When we started the relationship I knew I had broken the church’s laws,” reported newspaper Bergens Tidende (BT). “I was not aware that I broke the Norwegian law.” He said the relationship was not just about sex, and started as an innocent flirtation before they first had intercourse.
The girl said she went to the Catholic church to confess the relationship, and was promised “100 percent” that it would be in confidence, but that confidence was broken with catastrophic effects. “The case was prosecuted against my will after my confession,” she testified. “It was not I who reported this, but the Catholic Church. I didn’t want this to be known.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.