A priest was placed under house arrest in Italy after being accused of committing sexual violence against a minor and may have his case aggravated because he is HIV positive and did not use protection.
The measure is evaluated by preliminary investigations judge Milena Catalano, who ordered the arrest of parish priest Andrea Melis, former director of the Padre Assarotti school and foundation and former director of the Federation of Catholic primary and secondary schools in Liguria (Fidae).
According to the judge, “the danger is enormous” if it is considered that the religious man has HIV and had “intercourse without precautions”, exposing the victim “to the risk” of becoming infected.
Melis admitted to investigators that she contracted HIV 10 years ago in Africa, but is undergoing treatment, which reduces the risk of contagion. According to Italian authorities, the 12-year-old minor who was abused did not test positive for the virus.
The priest is accused of sexual assault against a minor, prostitution of a minor and attempted aggravated violence. Furthermore, there are suspicions that he abused other children.
In a search operation at his residence, police seized drugs for sexual stimulation, as well as designer clothes and a supply of electronic cigarettes that he gave to minors to lure them to his home.
Melis is defended by lawyers Raffaele Caruso and Graziella Delfino, who explain that the priest “lives with an HIV infection, but his situation has been under treatment for 12 years in the hospital San Martino of Genoa and for more than 10 years the therapy he has been following has given positive results.”
According to Caruso and Delfino, the controls carried out periodically by Melis “confirm the undetectability of the virus, which is, therefore, totally under control and, in fact, irrelevant”.
“When the virus is not detectable, it is not even transmissible.
This is a principle and an achievement of the science of infectious diseases. Anyone who finds themselves in this condition is not even obliged to report it because it does not represent a danger”, concludes the religious man’s defense. (Handle)
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