Italian priest arrested for 'gay sex ring' slander

A convicted priest, who claimed other priests used underage rent-boys for sex and pointed to an underage gay prostitution ring in the Church, has been arrested for 'making up' the allegations.

Don Patrizio Poggi, who spent five years in prison for sexually abusing underage boys at his parish on the outskirts of Rome, was arrested Friday, International Business Times reports.

'Poggi conceived and put into action a slanderous plan, presenting circumstances that were false,' prosecutors were quoted as saying. Poggi was hoping to be reinstate after he finished his prison sentence, but the Vatican did not.

Poggi, former priest of the San Filippo Neri church in Rome, had alleged a former Carabinieri police officer hired boys for clergy, according to International Business Times. 

The priest said he wanted to 'protect the Holy Church and the Christian community.'

Poggi, who reportedly gave evidence in the presence of two senior Vatican priests, claimed the former police officer would recruit mostly eastern European immigrant boys and also bring rentboys from gay discos, saunas and gyms across Rome. 

Clergymen paid between $200 and $650 for sex acts in church premises, he alleged.

Cardinal Agostino Vallini, head of the Catholic Vicariate of Rome, had rejected the allegations. 

"The Cardinal expresses his full confidence in the magistracy and declares himself full convinced that this slander will be demolished, demonstrating Poggi's claims to be untrue," Vallini was quoted as saying.