Vilnius court to hear suspended priest’s child pornography case

Vilnius City District Court will begin hearing the case against suspended priest Ryšardas Peciunas, who is accused of possessing pornographic material involving children, LRT reported. The first hearing is scheduled for September 17.

The case was transferred to the court on June 29 and assigned for trial by a ruling on July 22. The proceedings will be held behind closed doors.

There are two defendants in the case. The court will summon the prosecutor, the defendants, the legal representatives of victims and child rights specialists. The preventive measures imposed on the defendants will remain unchanged.

The court confirmed that Peciunas is one of the defendants, while the identity of the other has not been disclosed.

The Vilnius Archdiocese says Peciunas was born in 1974 and ordained as a priest in 1999. In 2021, he was removed as administrator of the parishes of St George in Buivydžiai and Divine Providence in Balingradas, and appointed pastor of the parishes of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rūdiškės and St John the Baptist in Paluknys.

Both defendants are charged under Article 309, Paragraph 2 of Lithuania’s Criminal Code. The provision covers producing, acquiring, possessing, displaying, advertising, offering or distributing pornographic material depicting a child or a person presented as a child, as well as obtaining or providing access to such material using information and communications technologies or other means. The offence carries a fine, restriction of liberty, arrest or imprisonment of up to four years.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Justas Laucius, chief prosecutor of the Vilnius Regional Prosecutor’s Office, also gave details of a separate case against another priest. That case concerns alleged sexual offences against children committed over more than 20 years.

Laucius said the separate case was linked to another criminal case transferred to court at the end of June. In that case, another Roman Catholic priest who worked in the Vilnius Archdiocese is accused, together with another person, of possessing pornographic material depicting a child or a person presented as a child.

The prosecutor said there was no information that the priests had committed crimes together. Evidence obtained while investigating one case led to additional circumstances and a separate investigation, he said.

Laucius said the Vilnius Archdiocesan Curia had been informed about both cases under the agreement between Lithuania and the Holy See governing legal relations with the Catholic Church. He described cooperation with the archdiocese as constructive and said the priests facing charges had been suspended from their religious duties.