Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CHILD ABUSE

Baby for sale: police launch probe over ad

An advert for the sale six-month-old baby with the “price up for negotiation” found on a French personal ads website is being investigated by police.

Published: 4 September 2012 11:21 CEST

A children’s rights organisation spotted the advert which was put up in the early hours of Sunday morning and alerted the authorities immediately, who are looking into it a possible case of child neglect.

The advert, placed in the furniture section of the website, was posted by an anonymous user. But despite keeping his identity the secret, he explained why the baby was up for sale.

“I’m getting rid of him because I just discovered that this child is visibly not mine,” the advert read.

“Not only does he not have the same colour skin as me, but the father rang me on my wife’s phone to ask me how my son is doing.”

This is not the first time children have been up for sale on the site. In December last year four children were put up for €950, apparently for a joke.

The same internet user put his wife up for sale on the site a few months later.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CHILD ABUSE

Vatican suspends Chilean deacon accused of child abuse

The Vatican dismissed a Chilean deacon over sexual abuse accusations in central Chile, the archdiocese of the city of Rancagua said Friday, amid a widespread abuse scandal gripping the country's Catholic Church.

Published: 21 July 2018 12:19 CEST
Vatican suspends Chilean deacon accused of child abuse
Pope Francis (pictured) in May accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops amid accusations of abuse. Photo: AFP
Luis Rubio was arrested for improper conduct and sexual abuse of minors when he was in charge of a Las Cabras school in 2013.
 
A year later, the archdiocese of Rancagua dismissed him from his duties while an investigation was underway, with the results sent to the Vatican, which has now expelled him.
 
Rubio's case was brought to the forefront in May when a television report revealed an alleged network of sexual abuse carried out by a group of religious figures collectively known as “The Family.”
 
Rubio was interviewed in the report, during which he admitted he had “made a mistake, but not committed a crime.”
 
A total of 14 priests and other religious figures were suspended as the Church investigated the network, while Rancagua prosecutors also opened their own investigation.
 
 
Pope Francis in May accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops amid accusations of abuse and related cover-ups. Meanwhile last week, prominent priest Oscar Munoz was arrested over allegations of sexual abuse and rape of at least seven children.
 
The pontiff also accepted the resignation of auxillary bishop Juan Jose Pineda in Honduras, who has faced allegations by former seminarians of sexual misconduct, the Vatican announced.
 
Pineda has given up his post as auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Church's archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, the Vatican said in a brief statement.
 
In March, former seminarians had accused the 57-year-old cleric of “serious sexual misconduct,” according to the US weekly National Catholic Register.
 
The alleged incidents happened earlier this decade when Pineda was teaching at the archdiocese's seminary for those studying for the priesthood.
 
Pineda was considered the righthand man of Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga, one of the closest advisors to Pope Francis and head of the “C9”, a council of cardinals who assist the pontiff in reforming the Vatican.