Former priest Domingo Espinal, sentenced to 15 years in jail and fined RD$100,000 after being found guilty of the rape of a minor in his care at a school in INVI, will appear in court today, Wednesday 9 October before starting his jail term in La Victoria jail. He went missing in 2009 when the court ordered his arrest for the rape that occurred in 2003.
The priest was rearrested on Monday, 7 October when he was recognized at the Police headquarters where he went to intervene on behalf of a minor who had been arrested for uploading videos (in the name of ‘Anonymous’) to the Internet against TV investigative journalist Nuria Piera, who had been following the case of the fugitive former priest.
Espinal was arrested by the Specialized Prosecutor Office for Hi-Tech Crimes (PECDATEC) together with the National Police and the Santo Domingo Prosecutor Office. As part of the investigations, the authorities searched an Internet center in Invivienda in Santo Domingo East and confiscated two computers and equipment that is suspected of having been used to film the video. During the search, a young man was arrested who, claiming to be the priest’s son, said that Espinal had obliged him to upload the libelous information.
The former priest then was located and when he arrived at the Police headquarters he was recognized and arrested.
Espinal’s sentencing was the first time that a Catholic priest had been sentenced to jail in the Dominican Republic. At the time, the Church’s response to the accusations was to send Espinal to the United States “to meditate on his behavior,” as revealed by Piera. The Church lobbied for the victim’s family to drop the charges, but the parents persisted on behalf of their son.
Nuria Piera brought the case back into the spotlight after a recent spate of news stories exposing alleged pedophilia by former papal nuncio Josef Wesolowski and Juncalito parish priest Wojciech, and others, made the headlines.
http://diariodigital.com.do/articulo.php?id=30371
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iTqho-I7hc
http://cdn.com.do/noticias/2013/10/08/arrestan-al-padre-domingo-espinal-acusado-de-abusar-sexualmente-de-un-menor/
www.acento.com.do/index.php/news/117584/56/Los-mas-graves-casos-de-abuso-sexual-en-la-Iglesia-Catolica-dominicana.html