Swiss Catholic priest held on suspicion of child abuse

A Swiss Catholic priest has been held on suspicion of sexual abuse against children, police and media said yesterday, amid child sex abuse scandals at churches in several European countries.

Regional police in canton Thurgau said in a statement that a Catholic priest in the village of Aadorf had appeared before a local court last Friday on suspicion of sexual offences.

"Investigations by cantonal police found evidence of possible offences by the 40 year-old Swiss man against minors," they said, adding that local investigating magistrates had taken up the case. The Swiss news agency ATS reported that he was placed in custody.

A spokesman for Thurgau police, Rolf Mueller, declined to give details on the investigation.

Switzerland's Roman Catholic church said on Saturday it was examining at least nine "serious" cases of suspected sexual abuse or harassment by priests in recent years, including four on children.

The probe came as child sex abuse scandals hit other Catholic churches in Europe.

Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday expressed "shame and remorse" for episodes of child sex abuse in Ireland, and said priests and religious workers who are guilty of child abuse must answer for their crimes.

Since the Irish cases emerged, abuse scandals have come to light in the Pope's native Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in Switzerland

Last week a Swiss priest confessed to sexually abusing children in Austria and Germany in the 1970s, Catholic Church authorities said. The case was referred to Austrian police.