Catholic priest in Paraná who sexually abused children for years gets 25-year jail term

An Argentine court sentenced a Catholic priest to 25 years in jail on Monday for sexually abusing seven children over a period of eight years.

Justo José Ilarraz had initially been held under house arrest until the 25-year sentence was confirmed on appeal.

Ilarraz, 57, carried out the abuse at a diocesan school in the city of Paraná, 600 kilometres north of Buenos Aires, where he was in charge of discipline and spiritual guidance.

Prosecutors said the victims, aged 13 and 14, were boarders at the seminary school and cut off from their families, whom they saw once a month. The boys were sexually abused by Ilarraz at the seminary between 1985 and 1993, the prosecution said.

Investigators said they believe there may have been other, younger, victims of Ilarraz who chose to remain silent.

“He guided them spiritually. He interacted with the seminarians in an in- formal way, as a way of establishing a link with them and making the abuse possible, and also as a way of keeping it secret for many years,” prosecutor Juan Francisco Ramírez told the TN news channel.

Ramirez said the victims had remained silent for years, but went to prosecutors in 2010 after demanding the Catholic Church stop Ilarraz from practising as a priest. “They did it after learning that the Church had not sanctioned him,” he said.

Ilarraz was removed from the seminary in 2012 after an internal Church investigation, but he was allowed to continue practising as a priest in the northern province of Tucumán.

Seven of the victims testified during the month long trial held behind closed doors. The priest denies the allegations, calling them a conspiracy.