Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Catholic Kottiyoor, Kerala, India · 2021

India: priest convicted of raping a sixteen-year-old parishioner; upheld by the Kerala High Court

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Disposition and response

Material that narrows or disputes the record

Appellate history

2021-12-03

Conviction upheld; one sentence component modified.

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

parish priest (vicar)

Organization

St Sebastian Parish, Kottiyoor, Diocese of Mananthavady

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The complainant was a minor parishioner of the church where the defendant was vicar, inside the pastoral relationship his office created with her family.

Pastoral or clerical authority

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2021-12-03 · conviction; upheld on appeal with partial sentence modification

POCSO Court, Thalassery, Kerala; Kerala High Court. Fr Robin Vadakkumchery, vicar of St Sebastian Parish Kottiyoor, was convicted in 2019 of raping and impregnating a 16-year-old parishioner in 2016 and sentenced to 20 years. The Kerala High Court upheld the conviction in 2021, modifying one sentence component. He was subsequently dismissed from the clerical state.

Documented coercion mechanisms

pastoral authority over a minor parishioner and her family

Cited record

Sources

national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'Kerala priest Fr. Robin gets 20 years in jail for raping, impregnating minor girl', The News Minute (2019).: Reports the POCSO court conviction and sentence.
legal publisher court reporting appellate disposition SCC Online, 'Kottiyoor Rape Case' (3 Dec. 2021).: Indian legal publisher's summary of the Kerala High Court's affirmance.

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://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kerala-priest-fr-robin-gets-20-years-jail-raping-impregnating-minor-girl-96833 Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 a756102aefc8c4037a7c44e72244d5b27724f3b7eb8e4d320dcbdf56bf98f7de
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.scconline.com/blog/post/2021/12/03/kottiyoor-rape-case/ Corpus classification: legal-publisher-court-reporting; evidentiary role: appellate-disposition. SHA-256 cfade1bf401534802b4c88bb1cdf4cb0b2c61dc3d80319ccf4a61b35b205f849
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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