The newspaper ‘Foni tis Rodopis’ published a shocking article according to which an Archimandrite sexually harassed a 5-year-old boy in Komotini, northern Greece, while the mother did nothing to help him.

According to what the child testified to the police, the Archimandrite and another man sexually harassed the boy in the monastery. In July 2014, the mother of three children takes two of them, aged 4.5 and 3, and accompanied by a friendly couple they went to the monastery, which was about 1.5 hour away from their house, to meet the Archimandrite. They returned home at 01.00 am. The next day, the grandmother of the children saw that the 4-year-old boy was very sad and silent. When she asked him why, as she and the father of the child claims, he said that “they went to the Archimandrite, they did not have a good time and he did not like them”.

A few months after the incident, the child started talking and described to his father and grandmother what happened and then he testified the shocking details to the police.

“In the summer, when they took us to the elder (Archimandrite), he kissed me on the lips and I kicked him and mom told me off and hit me. Then, they locked me in a room with toys, at first with E. (the partner of the man accused of sexual abuse) and then only me. Then the elder came, put his tongue outside the mouth, touched my willy and stuck his finger in my butt and I cried for help and the tall guy with the mustache (the man accused of sexual abuse) came and hit me on the head and locked me in the car. After a while, he came again in the car and he took his willy out of his pants and tried to put it in my mouth and I cried for help and managed to get out of the car and hid underneath it. Them, my mom came and told me to get out and then told me off and said that if I said what happened to anyone, she will beat me”.

A copy of child’s testimony (in Greek)