June 23 (UPI) — Monsignor Carlo Alberto Capella, a former Vatican diplomat in Washington, was convicted of possessing and distributing child pornography Saturday.
Judge Giuseppe Della Torre, head of the tribunal of the Vatican City court, sentenced him to five years in prison and fined him $5,833 after a two-day trial, according to the Vatican press service.
The monsignor, 50, will serve his sentence in the Vatican barracks, where he has been held since his arrest on April 7.
Capella possessed and exchanged a “a large quantity” of child pornography.
One official of the Vatican’s gendarmerie testified Friday he had found or recovered more than 40 child pornography images. These included showing sexual contact between adults and prepubescent children on his mobile phone.
“My errors are clear, and also clear is the fact that they occurred in a period of fragility,” Capella told the court Saturday. “I hope that this situation might be considered an incident in the course of my life as a priest, which I love more than ever.”
The Vatican press office said the trial was the first time a 2013 Vatican City law that criminalizing possession and distribution of child pornography has been enforced. Punishment is up to five years in prison, according to the law.
Capella was ordained as a priest in 1993.
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