KOSOVO
Christian Today
James Macintyre 09 August 2016
A British former Catholic priest wanted on historic child sex abuse charges should not be extradited to the UK because the crimes were committed too long ago, a court in Kosovo ruled on Monday.
Laurence Soper was detained in the western town of Peja – where he had lived for abour five years under the name Andrew Charles Kingston – in May on an international arrest warrant. He is accused of sex offences while he was a teacher in Britain. Soper allegedly committed the offences at St Benedict’s School in Ealing, where he was a teacher in the 1970s and 1980s.
The former abbot, now in his 70s, reportedly jumped bail in 2011 and a European arrest warrant was issued in 2012.
“British citizen Andrew Charles Kingston Soper should not be extradited because offences he has been charged with exceeded the statute of limitations,” a spokeswoman at the Basic Court, the first instance court in Peja, said.
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