A Roman Catholic priest who compared himself to Jesus Christ was jailed for life yesterday for his part in the murders, kidnappings and torture of Argentina’s “Dirty War”.

Christian Von Wernich, 69, chaplain to the Buenos Aires police force during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship, used his position to extract confessions from prisoners before handing them over to be tortured, murdered or "disappeared".

Von Wernich is the first priest to be sentenced in Argentina for abuses perpetrated on behalf of the junta. Hundreds of protesters celebrated the guilty verdict by letting off fireworks and burning effigies outside the court in the town of La Plata, 35 miles south of the capital.

“It’s a historic day, a wonderful day ... it’s something we mothers didn’t think we’d live to see,” said Tati Almeyda, one of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group that has spent decades campaigning on behalf of their children who were abducted by the Government during the 1970s and ‘80s. “Justice has been done. The Catholic Church was an accomplice.”

The “Dirty War” was fought against leftwing opponents by Argentina's military rulers, who came to power in 1976. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed or disappeared before Argentina returned to democracy in October 1983.

Von Wernich was convicted of complicity in seven murders, 31 cases of torture and 42 abductions in the Buenos Aires region.

He did not give evidence during the three-month trial but beforehand he compared himself to Jesus Christ “who was put on trial with support from the people, who asked that he be crucified".

The priest also accused the witnesses in the case of being possessed by the devil, many of them had survived Argentine torture chambers.

“The false witness here is the devil because he is pregnant with malice,” Von Wernich said staring at the judges. When they announced his verdict, the priest hung his head, his mouth turned downward and he crossed his arms over a bulletproof vest.

The Catholic Church issued a statement immediately after the verdict saying it was stricken with pain at seeing a priest involved in such serious crimes.

“If any member of the Church ... by recommendation or complicity, endorsed the violent repression, he did so under his own responsibility, straying from and sinning gravely against God, humanity and his own conscience,” said Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

“We believe the steps taken by the justice system in clarifying the facts should help renew every citizen’s effort toward reconciliation and serve as a wake-up call to put impunity, hatred and bitterness behind us.”

Many rights activists have accused the Church hierarchy of supporting the military dictatorship and opting to keep silent about its brutality.

Criminal investigations into the crimes committed under the junta have been re-opened since 2005 when Nestor Kirchner, the centre-left President, persuaded Congress and the Supreme Court to scrap amnesty laws shielding rights abusers from prosecution for dictatorship-era crimes.

Eduardo Duhalde, the Government’s Secretary for Human Rights, welcomed the latest verdict. “Now we think it should be followed up with sentences for all those found guilty of illegal repression," he said.

Von Wernich’s trial was the first case to investigate “Dirty War” crimes since a former provincial police commissioner was sentenced to life in prison in September 2006.

That trial was marred by the disappearance of Jorge Julio Lopez, a key witness, who has not been seen since and whom many fear may have been abducted and killed.

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