Overview

• A court in Grojec ordered three months of pre-trial detention for the 60-year-old priest on charges of murder with particular cruelty.
• He confessed to bludgeoning the 68-year-old man with an axe, dousing him in gasoline and setting him alight on a road near Chynow.
• A cyclist discovered the burning victim and reported a fleeing vehicle’s license plate, and witnesses identified the priest’s car at the scene.
• The killing stemmed from a dispute over a property transfer in which the homeless man had deeded real estate to the priest in exchange for lifelong housing and care.
• Archbishop Adrian Galbas has suspended the priest, requested his laicization and called for penance services at Sunday Masses.