German ex-priest convicted of sexually abusing boys

BERLIN – A court in southeastern Germany has sentenced a former Catholic priest to 8 1/2 years in prison for child sex abuse.

The regional court in Deggendorf, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) northeast of Munich, found the defendant guilty Thursday of abusing five boys on more than 100 occasions since the mid-1990s.

He was also convicted of bodily harm, forging documents and possessing child pornography.

German news agency dpa reported that judges ordered the man, who wasn’t identified, to be held in a psychiatric unit. Dpa reports the defendant may be kept in preventative detention after he has served his sentence depending on whether therapy is successful.

The man was previously imprisoned for sexual offences from 2003 to 2009. A church court expelled him from the priesthood in 2008.