2024-08-03 19:49:43
GENOVA. Top-ups on Postapay, designer clothes, video games. Gifts that all came at a price: sexual abuse. A priest was arrested by the Carabinieri of Genoa on this charge. From the investigations, coordinated by PM Federico Panichiit would have emerged that the victim was a boy who was an altar boy. The priest would also have tried to kiss two young people, after having given them an electronic cigarette.
He ended up under house arrest in a community in the eastern part of Genoa Father Andrea Melissixty years old, originally from Cagliari but transplanted to Liguria for years. The Curia suspended him after the accommodation where he lived was searched in recent days. A member of the Order of Piarist Fathers, he was the director of the elementary school and of the Assarotti Foundation in the Ligurian capitalin salita San Bartolomeo degli Armeni; and was president of Fidae Liguria (Federation of Catholic primary and secondary schools) as well as parish priest of the church of Sant’Antonio da Padova in Finale Ligure in the province of Savona.
The charges are sexual assault on a minor, child prostitution and attempted aggravated assault. The precautionary measure was triggered only for the first crime, repeated abuse of a twelve-year-old. On the other two charges against the priest, the investigating judge essentially postponed the evaluation until further investigative developments. In his home, investigators seized drugs for sexual stimulation but also designer clothing and a supply of electronic cigarettes.
2024-08-03 19:49:43