German priest indicted on 267 child sex counts

Nov 1, 2011, 17:21 GMT

Braunschweig, Germany - A German Catholic priest has been indicted on 267 counts of sexual contact with children, prosecutors disclosed Tuesday.

No date has been set for the trial.

The 46-year old man, who has been in pretrial custody since July, is accused of repeated sexual assault on at least three boys aged between 9 and 15 since 2004 in the northern steel-making town of Salzgitter, where he ran a parish.

Catholic authorities have come under fire for taking no action in 2006 when they learned that the priest slept a night with a boy in his bed. The Diocese of Hildesheim said there were no allegations at the time that any sexual contact took place.

After the boy's family complained, the priest was ordered to stop seeing the boy. He was later arrested.

Prosecutors in nearby Braunschweig said a psychologist was still examining the man, who has confessed most of the charges to detectives.

The Catholic church in Germany has faced a series of allegations since the start of last year of sexual abuse or brutal corporal punishment by clergy over the past 60 years, and has offered financial compensation to hundreds of victims.

Critics say the church covered up cases. Pope Benedict XVI has been criticized for engaging a priest with a child-sex record to work in the archdiocese of Munich in the 1980s when he was bishop there.