Mon Jul 18, 2011 3:6AM GMT
The German police have arrested a Catholic priest on suspicion of having sexually abused a child after the victim's mother pressed charges.
"The accused priest has admitted the allegations made against him in police questioning," the local police stated on their website on Sunday without naming the priest.
An investigation into the case had commenced in early July, Reuters reported.
Joachim Geyer, the spokesperson for the prosecutors' office in the German city of Braunschweig, said an arrest warrant had been issued against the priest.
The alleged abuse, however, had taken place some years ago.
The police had planned to arrest the priest next week. However, as the priest was due to go on a trip together with minors organized by the church, the arrest was made earlier.
Germany has over the past years experienced several cases of children being physically and sexually abused in institutions that were predominantly run by the Roman Catholic Church.
In 2010, some 180.000 Germans left the Catholic Church due to the revelations of priests sexually abusing minors.
This shows a 40 percent increase from 2009.
A report posted on the website for Germany's ARD broadcaster in April showed that thousands of children had been abused in church-run orphanages in Germany between 1949 and 1975.
PM/HRF
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