Pope's butler jailed 18months for stolen documents

Vatican City (AFP)Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler Paolo Gabriele was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Saturday for stealing secret documents from the Vatican that revealed fraud and intrigue in the tiny state.

Presiding judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre gave the former butler three years but immediately cut the sentence to 18 months on the grounds of service rendered to the Catholic Church in the past and his apology to the pope for betraying him.

Before the sentence, the butler told the court: “The thing I feel most strongly is the conviction of having acted out of visceral love for the Church of Christ and of its leader on earth. I do not feel I am a thief,” Gabriele told the court at the trial’s final hearing.