VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – The alleged victim of sexual abuse at a youth seminary in the Vatican said in court on Wednesday that her assailant wanted to have sex in a bathroom behind an altar in St. Peter’s Basilica, but he resisted the advances. .
The alleged victim, who is now 28 and identified only as LG, testified at the last hearing of the trial of two priests, one accused of abuse and the other of covering up the attacks.
LG claimed that Gabriele Martinelli, now 28 and now a priest, repeatedly forced him to have sex, especially when they were both minors at Pre-Seminary Pius X.
The seminar hosts altar boys who celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica – the dome of the papal church in the heart of the Vatican – and are thinking about becoming priests.
The events took place between 2007 and 2012 and Martinelli later became a priest in northern Italy.
LG said that Martinelli would slip into his bed at night and force him to touch him and also to have sex in another room. Martinelli, who testified last month, denied the charges.
During a three-hour hearing on Wednesday, LG said that Martinelli tried to convince him to have sex in a bathroom behind one of the altars in St. Peter’s Basilica, while both were to serve mass.
“I was shocked,” said LG, adding that he refused to follow Martinelli, who was naked under his cassock, into the bathroom.
The other defendant is Father Enrico Radice, 72, who was rector at the time and is accused of covering up the alleged abuse.
The prosecution says that Radice did not prevent Martinelli from becoming a priest after he left pre-seminary, although he knew of the abuses.
Radice, who had given Martinelli supervisory responsibilities over the other altar boys, denies this.
Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Alison Williams