THE trial of nursery school teachers and Roman Catholic priests allegedly involved in a paedophile ring in Brescia has divided residents and shocked Italy.

Preliminary hearings in the trial began yesterday in the northern city, with six teachers, three priests and three school caretakers charged with procuring children, aged between 3 and 5, for paedophiles. The defendants, who have not been named, are alleged to have told the children in their care that they were going to “play games” with adult men.

The scandal came to light when some of the 23 children involved told their parents they had been filmed and photographed in the men’s homes.

The Vatican has cracked down on paedophilia among the clergy, which the Pope has described as “not only a crime but also an appalling sin in the eyes of God”. But Italians tend to regard sexual abuse by clergy as an American problem, after the scandals in the United States two years ago. It emerged yesterday that investigating magistrates had been gathering evidence of the alleged Brescia sex abuse for the past year, using child psychologists to coax details from the children involved.

The alleged abuse occured at a nursery school in the heart of Brescia, an industrial town near Milan with a medieval and Renaissance centre and a strong sense of civic pride. The scandal has split the town, with some accusing the authorities of mounting a witch-hunt against the priests and teachers.

“The social machinery in Brescia is in danger of collapse,” Dario Olivero, a journalist in the city, said. “It is perceived as having betrayed the children. The families affected are seeking therapy and some are moving to other towns.”

Magistrates said two of the accused teachers had previously worked at a school where allegations of paedophilia had also arisen. Two of the accused priests recently defended themselves publicly against the accusations during Sunday services.

Father Mario Neva, of the Catholic University of Brescia, has defended the accused, saying there was a “crusade” against them. He said he was conducting a counter-inquiry designed to prove that the accusations were the result of “judicial errors”. He said: “I am not denying that paedophile priests exist, but I do deny there are any in Brescia.”

He said the parents bringing the charges had “lost their heads”, and the questioning of the children had been “disastrously mishandled”. Brescia could suffer “a wound which it will take more than a generation to heal” as a result.

The accused priests have also been defended by Monsignor Giulio Sanguinetti, the Bishop of Brescia, who said he believed that they were innocent. But Paolo Corsini, the Mayor of Brescia, said: “Whether the accused are innocent or guilty, it is clear that we have a serious problem in Brescia.”

The Pope, addressing women deputies at a conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union this week, said that “no one can be silent or remain indifferent when innocent children suffer or are marginalised and wounded in their dignity as human persons”.

Campaigners against paedophilia, however, have accused the Vatican of failing to respond adequately to sexual abuse accusations. This year Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned as Archbishop of Boston after a number of paedophile scandals, was given a sinecure as Archpriest in charge of St Mary Major, one of Rome’s main basilicas.

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