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A BRITISH PRIEST accused of child sex offences was arrested at London’s Luton airport yesterday, five years after he went on the run.
Laurence Soper was arrested as he arrived back in the UK from Kosovo, police said in a statement.
Soper, 72, was taken into custody in London and is accused of nine sexual assault offences committed between 1972 and 1986.
His arrest concludes a lengthy legal battle between the UK and Kosovo, where Soper was arrested in May on a European warrant issued by Britain.
Police in Kosovo said at the time he was known as “Father Laurence” and gave his full name as Andrew Charles Kingston Soper.
Earlier this month a Kosovo court refused for the second time to extradite the Catholic priest, ruling he could not be extradited because the statute of limitations for the alleged crimes had been reached.
Kosovo authorities were not immediately available to comment on Soper’s return to Britain and his subsequent arrest.
London’s Metropolitan Police were unable to say whether his return to the UK was made possible through an agreement with authorities in Kosovo, or whether Soper flew to London voluntarily.
A spokeswoman for the UK’s interior ministry was unable to confirm whether the government was involved in seeing Soper return to Britain.
The priest had been on the run since jumping bail in 2011. He has been accused of abusing five pupils when he taught at a private Catholic school in London.
Following an independent British report detailing 21 incidents of abuse by monks dating from the 1970s until 2010, the London school involved – St Benedict’s – apologised in 2011 and accepted recommendations to fundamentally change the way it is run.
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Good. Hopefully he gets the full vigour of the law.
Surely for legal reasons we can’t comment on Irish person arrested in another jurisdiction
The priest in question is British.
But the fact that it’s included in ‘Irish News’ and comments have been left open makes you wonder.
Anyway. Whoever he is I hope he gets a long sentence behind bars.
“But the fact that it’s included in ‘Irish News’ and comments have been left open makes you wonder.”
What does it make you wonder, Joey?
Surely a lot of Irish readers are interested in stories about kiddy-fiddling Catholic priests? After all, we’ve had quite a few of them here. And no, all of those press reports weren’t made up by the “liberal media” to try to discredit the Roman Catholic church. That cult has exposed its own corruption and revealed what a whited sepulchre it is all on its own, so do you really want the media to ignore this evidence whenever it is presented?.
Meanwhile every genuine Irish story of interest seems to be off limits currently.
Just saying like………
How much of this abuse is still going on in developing countries where the church has a lot of influence? Time this criminal organisation was disbanded.
Jumped bailed and on the run for 5 years. What a f***ing rat. I hope there’s no plea bargaining or leniency because of his age after that. Throw the book at him.
I dont know a whole lot about Brazils justice system but so far i like what i hear…..lets ask them what Europe should be doing to this b@stard
If you’ve enough cash in Brazil you’re practically untouchable by the law
Throw the key away and let him rot
Castrate him and give him a life sentence
Al. So. 82 I am very tempted to add to your comment but I’ll hold it back just to say if the fires of Hell are lighting I hope he will feel the heat
Al> While people expect castration to work they tried it and it didn’t work on sex offenders. Believe it or not
But it sounds sufficiently horrific to satisfy the lust for revenge in the form of bodily mutilation
I think blindness would help also cut of the essentials.
So much for private Catholic schools in the UK being the best.
I know the school personally, I did not attend, but many of my friends did and my close friend and ex boss wrote the review. It is a very good school, but Lord Carlile had very serious concerns about the governance and its structures in the school. In academic terms the school is well regarded, but it does have a history of sexual abuse and other offences.
Interestingly Fr. Sean Fortune was also sent to Ealing Abbey by the church where he was involved in retreats for catholic children.
Sean Fortune was an awful human being. I had the pleasure of being at mass done by him on a regular basis when holidaying in Fethard-On-Sea as a child.
The sooner this awful organisation fades away the better. I wonder if we will see Con O’Sullivan today……
Hahaha, poor Con is probably rubbing his scapulars or something to try and think up one of his usual brilliant contributions and tell us that this is all because atheists are essentially rapists, who regularly go to Sweden, “the rape capital of Europe” according to the voices in Con’s head, for refresher courses and while there attend courses run by latter-day disciplines of atheists like Stalin, Kim Il Sung and Pol Pot —- It’s all an anti-Catholic plot. ROFL
That a Catholic priest accused of abusing children did a runner and found refuge abroad for years only makes one wonder why Kosovo threw him out. If he had gone to the Vatican to join the other clerics hiding out there from secular justice, he would have been grand —
I had a right sparring session with him a couple of days ago. He went on with his usual spiel and claimed he had put me in my place.
How come comments are open on this thread, but not on anything associated with Pat Hickey or the Olympic Council? Surely there’s a case pending on the low life priest?
Possibly because Pat Hickey has been charged. Or someone forgot to click the ‘comments off’ button. We’ll never know.
The cases pending against the persons you mention are in Ireland. Any case brought against the priest will be in the UK. You have heard that the two countries separated some time back, haven’t you?
The cases pending against Hickey are in Brazil ya muppet. He hasn’t been charged with anything in Ireland. A Dail committee is not a court. Last time I looked Brazil was a little bit further away than Britain. I know, they both start with B, that has you confused.
King tut agree. And there is no smoke without fire, why did his wife say he had gone back to Ireland?????
I would think it probably has something to do with the relative likelihood of a defamation case being brought hould anyone make wild or scurrilous allegations. Someone who is never goin to come to Ireland is most unlikely to issue proceeedings in the Irish courts. I wpuld inagine PH will take steps should he arrive back and find he is being pilloried
It’s still odd that the charges and typical penalties are being reported on other media, in detail, yet not here. I want to know what’s happening with THG if their own solicitor has a warrant out for his arrest in Brazil. There’s a story there, why not report it as news?
Another one!! How many more are running free.
Should get at least 10 years like some of the kids got for petty theft. But no he won’t as he will be protected by the ruling class who are all in this together.
Why did you not print my post. You know i am right.
We are allowed to comment on this? This is much more serious than those two filthy corrupt animals in Brazil…. I do not get it.
have your say