5 Priests Use married Woman's Confession to Blackmail, Sexually Abuse Her

In an incident that seems to validate India being ranked as the most unsafe country in the world for women, five priests of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church in Kerala were suspended and sent away on leave after they were accused of sexually abusing and blackmailing a woman over the last few years.

The woman’s husband, in his complaint, had alleged that his wife’s confession to one of the accused priests, which was supposed to be a secret was rather used to blackmail the victim.

“A priest had abused her (his wife) before the marriage. Later, when she confessed the pre-marital affair, that priest (who heard the confession) exploited her, threatening that he would reveal everything to me. Again, that priest handed over her to another priest, blackmailing her using the photographs,” her husband was quoted as saying in an audio clip, reports The Indian Express.