A German court has convicted a Catholic priest of 250 counts of sexual abuse involving three boys over the period of several years and sentenced him to six years in prison.
The state court in Braunschweig on Thursday found the priest guilty of abusing the boys, aged 9 to 15, between 2004 and 2011.
The 46-year-old man, whose name was not revealed, told the court he abused the children during youth camps.
“He exploited the trust of their parents," said Judge Manfred Teiwes as he passed the sentence.
The Catholic priest admitted the charges after he agreed to a plea deal at the start of the trial, fixing an upper limit on the sentence.
Abuse allegations have rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Germany in recent years, making thousands of disenchanted Germans leave the Church over revelations of abuse.
About 180,000 renounced their Catholicism in 2010, up 40% from 2009, the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported earlier this month.
