A parish priest has reported a sex abuse case to authorities some 65 years after the incident took place, after learning about the incident while preparing for the victim’s funeral.
Rev. Baldur Kristjánsson, parish priest of Ölfus, was working on the preparations for the funeral of a 78-year-old woman and learned she had never received confirmation. The reason for this, he learned, was because she had been sexually abused by a priest before reaching confirmation age (about 13 years old).
The event, Baldur wrote on his blog, was so traumatising to the victim that she never received confirmation and struggled with mental health issues all her life.
“I have reported the matter to child protection authorities in Reykjavík, as I should. Such cases should never and may never face of a statute of limitations,” he added. Baldur is keeping the identity of the victim a secret, as few outside her immediate family know about the incident, but he considers it his duty to the service of her life to report the abuse.
Iceland has no statute of limitations for cases of sexual abuse against someone under the age of 18 when the abuse took place.
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