Belgium (1957): five-year sentence for a priest who abused eighteen boys under sixteen
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Core record
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
priest of the Diocese of Bruges
Organization
Diocese of Bruges
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
Twenty-two boys and adolescents, under a diocesan priest, in the mid-1950s.
- Pastoral or clerical authority
Evidence structure
Proceedings
1957-01-01 · conviction and sentence
Correctionele Rechtbank, Veurne, Belgium. A priest of the Diocese of Bruges, recorded in the Deetman Report under the code bp2, was convicted at the Veurne correctional court of indecent assault against eighteen boys under sixteen and four minors over sixteen, committed between 1954 and 1956, and received sentences of five years and two and a half years for the concurrent offences.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- priestly access to boys and adolescents
Cited record
Sources
- official commission finding commission conviction record Deetman Report (Netherlands, 2011), via the Internet Archive.
Commission report recording the conviction and sentences.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://archive.org/details/RapportDeetmanSeksueelMisbruikRk Corpus classification: official-commission-finding; evidentiary role: commission-conviction-record. SHA-256 28730da9723b0e0a4d0b142e5d16b3eaf6f961a0e8dd9cf81e6620f0186f6354
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
Related cases · Christian institutions & contexts
- 2018 · Harrisburg, PA, USA PA grand jury: 301 priests, 1,000+ child victims documented ('weaponized' faith)
- 2009 · Dublin, Ireland Ryan Commission: abuse 'endemic' in Catholic-run institutions (state inquiry)
- 2021 · Paris, France CIASE/Sauvé Report: est. 216,000 abused by French clergy since 1950
- 2019 · Vatican City McCarrick: ex-cardinal found guilty by Vatican canonical process, laicized
- 2010 · Oregon City, OR, USA Beagley faith-healing death: parents convicted (criminally negligent homicide)
- 2014 · Philadelphia, PA, USA Schaible: 3rd-degree murder, second child dead of untreated pneumonia
- 2001 · London, UK Victoria Climbié: murder convictions; possession belief; Laming Inquiry followed
- 2012 · London, UK Kristy Bamu: kindoki 'deliverance' murder convictions (30/25-yr minimums)