Former priest Albert Wojciech Gil has reached a settlement with a Polish court, which includes seven years in jail to end a child abuse case presented by the Dominican and Polish legal authorities. Spanish news agency EFE reports that Gil was ordered to pay EUR40,000 in compensation, but it is unclear if this is for each of the six minors or for all and whether this covers the legal costs of the case. The decision by the court in Wolomin near Warsaw was announced earlier today, Wednesday, 25 March 2015
The ruling also bans Wojciech Gil from approaching the victims and from working with young people for 15 years.
Wojciech was accused of abusing six minors in his former parish of Juncalito in the central province of Santiago between 2009 and 2013 and two minors in Poland in 2000-2001. The settlement that was accepted by the prosecutors who represented both the Dominican and Polish victims means the case will not go to a full trial.
Wojciech Gil has been under arrest in Poland since February 2014. Once the Dominican media caught on to his case in 2013, he returned to his home country. This was followed by the rushed departure of Archbishop Josef Wesolowski, the Polish papal nuncio in the country at the time, who left surreptitiously in August 2013 after reporters started investigating allegations of child abuse against him too. The Vatican is still handling Wesolowski’s case.
Polish news reports mentioned another recent settlement of EUR150,000 in a case of abuse of a Polish minor. The lawyer for that victim said that the settlement showed that the Church’s position that it does not bear legal responsibility for the actions of individual priests is no longer sustainable.
http://thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/201446
http://thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/189122
http://www.noticiassin.com/2015/03/a-la-carcel-condenan-al-padre-alberto-gil-a-siete-anos-por-abuso-de-menores-en-rd-y-polonia/
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/prison-term-polish-priest-accused-abusing-minors-29892935