In Caserta, child abuse, eight years in prison requested for priest

Caserta. The Santa Maria Capua Vetere Prosecutor's Office has requested an eight-year and four-month prison sentence for Father Gianfranco Roncone, former parish priest of Presenzano, a municipality in the Alto Casertano area, accused of sexual assault on a minor, who was 17 at the time.

Father Roncone was also accused of abusing another minor, but the Prosecutor's Office requested an acquittal for this incident due to lack of evidence. Both boys are of Albanian origin.

The trial is currently underway in the Santa Maria Capua Vetere courthouse before the First Section panel presided over by Giovanni Caparco. The court will return on March 8th for arguments by Don Roncone's defense attorneys, Renato Jappelli and Dario Mancino.

The priest was suspended from the Diocese of Teano on Christmas Eve 2020 after an investigation was opened against him for sexual abuse of two minors (one of whom had reported him after the events that occurred in August 2020).

Caserta child abuse: 8 years requested for Don Gianfranco Roncone

A few months later, in April 2021, investigations by the Prosecutor's Office and the Carabinieri of Capua led to Don Roncone being placed under house arrest, which was later revoked the following August following the evidentiary hearing that brought the priest face to face with his two accusers.

During the interview, some discrepancies emerged in the account given by one of the two victims, so the investigating judge replaced the house arrest with a mandatory stay in the municipality of Sparanise, the priest's hometown. Today, Don Roncone is free from all restrictions. The investigation began in August 2020 after the parish priest was caught by a Carabinieri patrol from the Capua branch in his car in an isolated area near the Presenzano cemetery, accompanied by two young Albanians.