Greece: priest who ran a quasi-monastic household of three mothers and eight children convicted of raping and abusing minors over years, sentence upheld on appeal

Proceedings

1. 2025-03-26 · conviction, affirmed on appeal without reduction

   Mixed Jury Court of Agrinio, Greece; affirmed by the Mixed Jury Court of Appeals of Agrinio. The priest was unanimously convicted on all charges — possession of child sexual abuse material, rape, and indecent assault — and sentenced to 27 years' imprisonment without suspension, plus a fine; roughly one year of pre-trial detention was credited. He filed for appeal after the original 18 July 2022 first-instance verdict. On 26 March 2025 the Mixed Jury Court of Appeals of Agrinio upheld the sentence in full, not reducing it by a single day, closing what press coverage called a landmark vindication for the victims. The two sisters who brought the initial complaint said the abuse began in 2007 when they were 12 and 8; one testified to roughly 24 instances of abuse between ages 12 and 14. The complaint was filed in 2021, reportedly prompted by the victims' being inspired by Greek Olympic sailor Sofia Bekatorou's own public sexual-abuse disclosure that year.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• claimed that the mother of the primary victims and her daughters were afflicted by witchcraft/a curse and that only he could save them, establishing total psychological control over the family
• operation of a self-styled communal household ('koinovio') of three mothers and eight children (six girls, two boys) under his sole authority, controlling finances, movement and contact with the outside world
• exploitation of his standing as their priest and head-of-household to abuse two sisters roughly monthly from ages 12 to 14