A 60-YEAR-OLD Catholic priest who specialised in exorcisms and worked as a youth church leader in the Island has appeared in the Magistrate’s Court charged with ten counts of sexually abusing a child in Jersey.
Piotr Antonio Glas, known as Peter when his Polish name is Anglicised, is alleged to have committed the crimes while working for the Catholic Deanery in Jersey under Monsignor Nicholas France.
Mr Glas is accused of sexually abusing a child under the age of 16 in a northern parish between 2002 and 2007. It was the Polish priest’s first appearance in court on Tuesday.
He had been on Centenier’s bail since returning to the Island from his UK home last week.
Advocate Adam Harrison, prosecuting for the Crown, detailed the allegations forming the eight counts of acts of gross indecency with a child.
He told the court that six of the gross indecency charges related to allegations that on multiple occasions over three or four years, Mr Glas had placed the complainant’s feet against his face while he masturbated.
The other two gross indecency charges related to allegations that the accused placed the complainant’s feet against his face while holding the complainant’s head against his erect penis.
Mr Glas is also accused of two counts of indecent assault on a child. Advocate Harrison said that both charges related to assertions that Mr Glas had kissed the complainant on the mouth.
Mr Glas was asked by Relief Magistrate Nuno Santos-Costa to stand in the dock while the charges were read out.
Wearing a crumpled beige short-sleeved shirt and grey trousers, he spoke only to give his name and to confirm that he lived in Southampton.
Advocate Harrison said that he considered the charges too serious to be heard by the Magistrate’s Court and asked that the case be committed to the Royal Court.
Mr Santos-Costa agreed a date of 6 September for the defendant’s first appearance in the higher court, at which the 60-year-old is due to be indicted and can formally enter pleas.
The court heard that Mr Glas had already surrendered his British passport.
Mr Santos-Costa adjourned the hearing for a week so that bail conditions could be reconsidered once the status of Mr Glas’s Polish passport had been established.
In the meantime, he ruled that the accused should remain in Jersey at a specified address and should not contact any of the witnesses.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Mr Glas has been a parish priest in Gosport, in Hampshire, since 2008.
On his Wiki page, he is described as a Polish fundamentalist Catholic priest and former exorcist of the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth in the south of England.
It adds: “He is known for his veneration for Mary, Mother of Jesus, and propagation of her worship and being a cultural phenomenon in his native Poland.
“He decided to get ordained at the age of 17, when he heard a voice telling him to follow God during a walk with a dog. He became a priest in 1989.”
While in the Island, he worked as a youth priest and became the priest for the newly-formed “Catholic western parish” – a combination of the two former parishes of St Bernadette and St Mathieu.
