Catholic priest ‘molested two women and beat up police’

A CATHOLIC priest from Britain beat up two policemen when they tried to arrest him for sexual assault in Rome.

Two women in their 40s told officers that Father Peter Slocombe, 72, had repeatedly touched them while on a train in the Italian capital.

Slocombe, who was not wearing his robes, fled but was cornered by two officers at the main station. He lashed out, breaking the nose of one officer and leaving the other with cuts and bruises.

They called for back-up before bundling the priest, pictured, into a squad car. The officers were taken to hospital.

‘This guy was crazy,’ said a police spokesman. ‘He was punching and kicking out at the officers.

‘He kept saying he was man of the cloth and was innocent but we have witnesses who say he was touching two women on the train and the victims identified him.’

Slocombe, from Gloucestershire, was convicted in a closed court of groping the women on a metro train and of lashing out at the officers.

As part of his sentence on Monday, he was placed under house arrest at a Vatican training college for two years and eight months.

He was also ordered to pay each of the officers nearly £4,500 in compensation.

Slocombe is parish priest at St Joseph’s Church in Tewkesbury and a chaplain at the University of Gloucester.

Parishioners had planned a party for him next month to celebrate his 50 years as a clergyman. He was in Rome to mark that anniversary, prosecutors said.

His lawyer Lena Carideo said he denied all the charges and was appealing. She added: ‘The train was full and there was barely room to move.’

His diocese is investigating.