A priest from Poland has been arrested and charged with sex and drug offenses, as well as failing to assist a person in a medical emergency, after reports surfaced that a man had collapsed at a sex party held at the priest’s residence, as per state news agency PAP on Thursday.
The diocese in southwest Poland has been embroiled in controversy since last September, when reports of an orgy at the home of a priest in the town of Dabrowa Gornicza emerged.
The priest, known as Tomasz Z due to Polish privacy laws, was placed in pre-trial detention after his arrest on Monday and could potentially face up to 10 years in prison.
“Three of [the charges] concern crimes described in the law on counteracting drug addiction and are related to providing drugs, one of these is additionally related to… crimes against sexual freedom and decency,” a spokesman for the local prosecution told PAP.
The fourth charge is related to the failure to assist someone facing a threat to their life or health.
According to Polish media reports, a man collapsed at the party after taking an excessive amount of erectile dysfunction pills.
One of the attendees at the party called an ambulance, but when paramedics arrived they were refused entry and were only able to attend to the man after police were called, as the reports indicate.
The media reports suggested that the collapsed man was a male prostitute, but the prosecutor’s office refuted those claims, stating that three men had taken part in the event – the man who collapsed, Tomasz Z, and a man who called for help.
The bishop of the diocese resigned last year, as per the Vatican, without providing a reason for his resignation. Also, Tomasz Z was dismissed from the clergy last year after the media reported on the alleged sex party.
Parallel to the work of the prosecutor’s office, the church will also conduct its own trial in the case of Thomasz Z, with the results being forwarded to the Vatican, according to the press office of the Sosnowiec diocese as told to Reuters.
(Reporting by Anita Komuves in Budapest and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk in Warsaw, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
