A Catholic priest in Italy has been sentenced to almost a decade in prison for sexual violence against minors.

A court in the northwest city of Genoa sentenced Riccardo Seppia to nine years, six months and 20 days in prison and fined him 28,000 euros.

Seppia was found guilty of attempted sexual violence, attempted prostitution of a minor and of attempting to furnish cocaine to minors.

The priest was arrested in May 2011 on suspicion of sexual violence against a 16-year-old altar boy and sex abuse of other youths.

At least 10 teenage boys or young men under the age of 21 were surgically castrated to get rid of homosexuality while in the care of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church in the 1950s.

Evidence of the castrations has emerged amid controversy that it was not included in the findings of an official investigation into sexual abuse within the church last year.

The NRC Handelsblad newspaper identified Henk Heithuis who was castrated in 1956, while a minor, after reporting priests to the police for abusing him in a Catholic boarding home.

Joep Dohmen, the investigative journalist who uncovered the Heithuis case, also found evidence of at least nine other castrations. These cases are anonymous and can no longer be traced, he said. There will be many more. But the question is whether those boys, now old men, will want to tell their story.

Two clergymen were convicted of abuse but Heithuis, the victim, was nonetheless transferred by police to a Catholic psychiatric hospital before being admitted to the St. Joseph Hospital in Veghel later that year. There, court papers confirm, he was castrated at his own request , despite no submission of his written consent. Sources told Dohmen that the surgical removal of testicles was regarded as a treatment for homosexuality and also as a punishment for those who accused clergy of sexual abuse.

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One of Britain's most senior Buddhist monks is accused of carrying out a string of sex attacks on two young girls aged under 10.

The Venerable Pahalagama Somaratana, 66, is facing nine counts of rape, indecent assault and sexual assault.

One girl claims Somaratana abused her in the shrine room of Croydon Temple - where he has been chief monk for the past 31 years.

The attacks are alleged to have taken place on one victim in Chiswick, London during the summer of 1978.

Update: Convicted of Assault

4th May 2012. Via article from  bbc.co.uk

Pahalagama Somaratana was convicted of four counts of indecent assault on a female. But he was found not guilty of rape.

He was the chief incumbent of Thames Buddhist Vihara. Police said the assaults had taken place in Chiswick, west London, in the 1970s.

The 65-year-old will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on 1 June.

Update: Jailed

3rd June 2012. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

A senior Buddhist monk from south London has been jailed for seven years after he was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault.

Pahalagama Somaratana was also put on the sex offenders register for life.

He was also ordered at Isleworth Crown Court to never work with children.

Yazeid Osama Aqqad, 24, touched one boy when he was sitting on his lap on two occasions and abused another boy after inviting him to sit on his lap.

Aqqad denied the offences during his trial, but was found guilty unanimously of three allegations of sexual assault on a male child under the age of 13 years.

Judge Andrew Hamilton disqualified him from working with children and ordered him to sign the sex offenders' register for life.

The mother of the two boys has been vilified by the Muslim community for reporting the assaults, Nottingham Crown Court heard. She has been subjected to a number of unpleasant incidents including an episode at her home and damage to her car, Sarah Knight, prosecuting, said. The mother told the court she felt the acts were aimed at encouraging her to withdraw the allegations because in the eyes of the Muslim community, she had committed a sin.

Malcolm John Fraser, the assistant pastor of Enumclaw's Sound Doctrine Church, has been formally charged  with first-degree rape of a child. He will be arraigned April 5.

According to charging papers, Fraser is alleged to have had repeated sexual contacts with a girl during 2005 and 2006. While it was noted intercourse did not occur, other sex acts have been alleged. Papers filed by the King County Prosecutor's Office state that Fraser forced the young girl to engage in certain sex acts.

A probable cause statement issued by the Enumclaw Police Department said the issue was first brought to police attention in a report from Child Protective Services saying that a youngster had been molested by the assistant pastor of a local church during the time frame of 2005 to 2006. The girl is now 17.

A jury has found a leader of a religious sect guilty of raping his daughter and allowing his friend to rape her as well.

Terrill Dalton, 45, who used the name the Holy Ghost, was convicted of two counts of rape, a first-degree felony.

Defense attorney Rudy Bautista said jurors were emotional, and one was crying as they announced the verdict. He said he plans to appeal the verdict.

Prosecutors say Dalton condoned an impression that Geody Harman, 38, said he had received indicating that he needed to have sex with the then-15-year-old girl. Both Dalton and Harman were leaders of a small religious group called the Church of the First Born and the General Assembly of Heaven.

Dalton called himself the Holy Ghost while Harman was often referred to as God in the flesh. In a prior hearing, Dalton's daughter testified that she was promised she would receive blessings if she had sex with the two men and felt extreme pressure from her father and those in his church to comply. She was raped at 15 years old by a person who should have protected her. Instead of protecting her, he served her up on a silver platter. ... In raping her, he manipulated her. He used religion, said this is what God wanted. --Tupakk Renteria

Dalton will be sentenced May 11.