The Athens Trial Court imposed a 51-month prison sentence, redeemable at 10 euros a day, on Father Antonios, who was found guilty of five of the 19 offences he faced relating to the abuse of underage children hosted at the Ark of the World. In his first interview after the conviction he denied everything, claiming that some people had “an interest in the children leaving us” and said that for the prosecution against him “children were used to lie”.

Speaking to STAR, he said people who “had an interest in the children leaving us” wanted to harm him. We were looking out for the welfare of the children, from the beginning we practiced the institution of fostering, we were looking for the right couple to help the child with his problems. And we have always made sure that there are the right families.”

Commenting on the sentence handed down by the court, he said he was “disappointed” by the decision and claimed that “we gave plenty of evidence, we proved there was no crime committed. Our prosecutors have a criminal record.”

He reiterated that the “accusations have bothered me because they are lies. They used the delinquent children of the Ark that no one would dare to host for a day. They used the children to lie.”

“The moral perpetration was that I was calling Chios from Athens and telling them to slap a child and not to go to school. The prosecutor’s office was saying that we should accommodate the children and we did it with all our hearts. Over 10,000 children passed through the Ark. Nobody accused me until the theft took place in Volos.” He argued.

“After leaving we left 15 million to the new management and the property from which there is an attempt to exclude us to sell it off. They said that there is misappropriation of an amount we had in the structure for operating expenses. We turned over to the financial police the amount that was recorded in the accounting department. They said I was…’eating’ the food of the Ark,” he continued.