Diamonds, sex parties and blackmail: Disgraced Italian ex-priest ‘Don Euro’ jailed
Former priest Luca Morini was convicted after a sex worker blew the whistle on his exploits
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Your support makes all the difference.An Italian former priest, dubbed “Don Euro” because of his expensive taste in diamonds and luxury holidays, has been jailed for extorting a former bishop.
Luca Morini was also convicted of impersonation – after he pretended to be a judge while hiring male sex workers.
Details of the now-defrocked priest’s exploits were revealed at a court in northern Italy on Wednesday.
He was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years following a series of scandals, which had been exposed by an Italian TV show and a whistleblower.
Morini was however acquitted on charges of extorting a nun, drug dealing and money laundering.
He was first thought to be good-natured when he arrived in the small Tuscan town of Pontasserchio.
But he soon gained a reputation in the area for persuading mostly elderly parishioners to donate generously to the church’s collection plate. The swelled coffers were then allegedly spent on parties, diamonds, luxury holidays with sex workers.
Morini spent money lavishly on a group of “mostly” young men who would accompany him to swingers’ clubs, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
Legal investigations into his behaviour started in 2015 when a sex worker blew the whistle on Morini’s spending and revealed that he had posed as a judge.
In 2018, a court in Genoa discovered and confiscated insurance polices, a current account, and diamonds from the priest, Corriere della Sera reported.
Four men, including the original whistleblower, brought a case of false identity against Morini and were awarded £12,000 in compensation by the court.
In court on Wednesday, Morini was convicted of extortion for blackmailing the former bishop of Massa Carrara, Giovanni Santucci.
Mr Santucci had suspended Morini from his priestly duties and was then allegedly blackmailed into loaning him thousands of euros and buying him a new house.
Prosecutors asked for a longer sentence but it was reduced slightly because the court ruled that Morini suffered from mental illness.
The sentencing comes after another Tuscan priest, Father Francesco Spagnesi, was sentenced to three years and eight months in jail for drug dealing, trafficking and misappropriation last December.
The former priest expressed remorse over his actions and will serve part of his sentence in a residential community, receiving treatment for his drug habits.
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