Catholic priest sentenced to life for intercourse trafficking boys, manipulating opioid addictions
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An Ohio priest was sentenced to life in jail Friday after he was convicted of grooming three boys and taking advantage of their opioid addictions to force them into commercial sex, in response to the U.S. Justice Division.
In Might, a federal jury in Toledo discovered the Rev. Michael Zacharias, a Roman Catholic clergymember, responsible of five counts of sex trafficking in allegations that spanned 15 years, from July 2005 to August 2020. Prosecutors stated he abused his function as a instructor and priest at a Toledo parish faculty to groom the three boys into maturity, pressure them into intercourse and allow their addictions to ache drugs and heroin later in life.
“Michael Zacharias used his place as a trusted non secular chief and function mannequin for younger boys and their households to take advantage of them in essentially the most insidious methods, coercing his victims from childhood and past to interact in industrial intercourse with him,” stated Kristen Clarke, the assistant legal professional normal of the Justice Division’s Civil Rights Division, in an announcement.
Toledo diocese: Ohio Catholic priest guilty of sex trafficking boys; allegations spanned 15 years
Testimony and proof at trial confirmed Zacharias developed relationships with the victims’ households after they have been younger to achieve their belief, prosecutors stated. Because the victims bought older, he exploited their fears, their housing instability and their prison information to pressure them into industrial intercourse.
Zacharias was ordained as a priest in 2002, a Diocese of Toledo news release stated. In 2020, upon his arrest, Zacharias was positioned on administrative go away from his function within the diocese and a pastor at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Toledo.
On Friday, the Rev. Daniel Thomas, the bishop for the Toledo diocese, stated in a statement that Zacharias’ life sentence marked one other step towards justice. After he was convicted in Might, Thomas stated, the diocese requested to dismiss Zacharias, 56, underneath canonical legislation, nevertheless it wants official approval from the Vatican. The diocese is awaiting a response.
This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Ohio Catholic priest gets life sentence for sex trafficking of boys
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