Absconding UK priest wanted over sex abuse arrested in Europe

Pristina: A British priest, wanted in connection with sexual abuse allegations, has been arrested in Kosovo of south-east Europe.

Laurence Soper, the former abbot of a London monastery, was arrested in 2010 and bailed. He failed returning to a London police station and responding to his bail in March, 2011. Consequently, a European arrest warrant was issued against him several months later.

“Laurence had been arrested at Pec in the country’s west on Thursday,” confirmed Pristina police.

“The extradition process is under way to take him back to UK,” told a senior British official on conditions of anonymity.

Highlights:

• A man (then in his 40s) in 2010 accused Laurence of sexual assaulting him at St Benedict’s School at Ealing in west London.
• London’s Metropolitan police issued a European arrest warrant in 2012, after the priest failed to answer bail.
• Earlier, the London police believed the priest was shifted to Italy.
• According to reports, Soper changed his name to Andrews while living in Pec.