Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Veurne, Belgium · 1957

Belgium (1957): five-year sentence for a priest who abused eighteen boys under sixteen

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

priest of the Diocese of Bruges

Organization

Diocese of Bruges

Spiritual nexus

Twenty-two boys and adolescents, under a diocesan priest, in the mid-1950s.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 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

Primary record

Sources

official commission finding commission conviction record Deetman Report (Netherlands, 2011), via the Internet Archive.

Commission report recording the conviction and sentences.

Related record

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