Austria: seminarian convicted on internet porn charge

A student priest at the St Poelten seminary in Austria was convicted of possessing child pornography on Friday. On Thursday, the Vatican closed down the seminary in which had "veered away from its mission". The 27 year old Pole was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for downloading hundreds of images from the internet. The trainee priest is the only person charged over the scandal. He could have received a maximum of two years in prison. But the judge at the St Poelten court said he had considered the man's "factual confession" as an extenuating circumstance in passing sentence.