Priests recorded young individuals who were forced into prostitution

A senior priest enticed young people to have sex with customers in his bedroom while abusing them at his Fürth residence. As is now known, the guy was previously given a total jail term of two years and eight months by the district court of Nuremberg-Fürth for serious forced prostitution, sexual assault, and other offenses. The culprit has never been arrested before.

Since August 25 the decision has been considered final. The case was originally covered by the press in Nuremberg. It is a priest from the diocese of Regensburg, according to church records, but Fürth is a member of the archdiocese of Bamberg. In his first response, Andre Hermany, dean of Fürth, referred to a “disgusting situation.” He also attacked the church’s internal information policy at the same time. When questioned by the Catholic News Agency, he said that he only learned about it over the weekend via the magazine (KNA). Since July 2015, the priest has been on a brief vacation due to health issues, according to the Regensburg diocesan press office. He was now free to decide where he wanted to live.

Crimes were committed in 2019 and 2020

The offences were perpetrated in 2019 and 2020, the judgement said. Therefore, the priest claimed to be a young guy and participated in important gay dating sites. He said that his goals were to “capture the guys’ interest,” earn their trust and get them to come see him and have sex with him. That was not enough for him, according to the court’s order: “He wanted to win them as a prostitute, whom he ‘manages’ like a pimp or a brothel and therefore also gain money by renting out his bedroom to his escorts.” Each prostitute was required to pay him 25 euros in rent for this. He covertly recorded sexual acts to add to his collection of pornography. In 14 cases, the court found this to be substantiated.

On June 16, 2021, the culprit had already been found guilty once by the Fürth District Court. During the appeals procedure, the Nuremberg-Fürth district court reduced the sentence by four months. At the end of August 2020, the priest was taken into custody. Police officers discovered him attempting to flush storage media carrying child and teen pornography down the toilet while searching his Fürth flat. He had to spend four months in jail as a result. The priest admitted his mistake but without counseling, he remains in danger.

The Regensburg diocesan leadership was informed of the charges by the criminal police on October 5, 2020, claims press spokesperson Stefan Groß. Preliminary canonical procedures were started four days later, and Rome was informed of the situation. Since the priest was already in detention and pastoral service was not impacted, he did not see the necessity for this. However, it is intended to search for potential victims in collaboration with the independent victim’s advisory council. Roland Batz, the vicar general, will send a letter.