The Latest on the ex-Vatican diplomat child pornography case (all times local):
1:50 p.m.
The Vatican tribunal has convicted a former Holy See diplomat and sentenced him to 5 years in prison for possessing and distributing child pornography in the first such trial of its kind inside the Vatican.
Monsignor Carlo Capella admitted to viewing the images during what he called a period of “fragility” and interior crisis sparked by a job transfer to the Vatican embassy in Washington.
Tribunal President Giuseppe Dalla Torre read out the verdict Saturday after a two-day trial that ended with Capella appealing for a lenience sentence by saying the episode was just a “bump in the road” of a priestly vocation he loved and wanted to continue.
Dalla Torre said that Capella continued to access the material even after he had been recalled by the Vatican in August 2017.
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1:30 p.m.
Prosecutors have asked the Vatican tribunal to convict and sentence to more than five years a former Holy See diplomat who admitted to downloading child pornography during what he called a period of “fragility” over a job transfer.
Monsignor Carlo Capella made a final bid for leniency Saturday as the court began deliberating his fate.
He said the 40 to 55 photos, films and Japanese animation found on his cellphone, an iCloud and Tumblr account were just a “bump on the road” of a priestly vocation that he loved and wanted to continue.
Prosecutors asked the court to convict Capella and sentence him to five years, nine months for the “great” amount of images he consulted and shared even after he had been recalled by the Vatican from Washington.
