India: police charge Catholic bishop with raping nun

Agence France-presse
Wed 10 Apr 2019 01.13 BST

Police on Tuesday charged an Indian bishop with repeatedly raping a nun at a rural convent in a case that has cast a new shadow on the Catholic church’s global sex abuse crisis.

Franco Mulakkal was charged with raping the nun several times between 2014 and 2016, according to K Subash, police deputy superintendent in the district of the southern state of Kerala where the investigation was carried out.

The bishop also faces charges of unlawful detention, unnatural sex and abuse of authority. Mulakkal – who would face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment if convicted – has denied the allegations.

The police report ran to more than 100 pages and contained statements from nuns, priests and other bishops, media reports said.

The victim filed a complaint in June last year, but police only started formal questioning in September as fury over the case mounted.

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