Catholic Priest Arrested After 11 Year Old Girl Recorded Herself Being Molested

TRENTOLA DUCENTA, ITALY – An 11-year-old Italian girl was widely praised after she used her smartphone to secretly record evidence of being sexually abused by her parish priest — recordings that ultimately forced authorities to act when adults around her had not.

Father Michele Mottola, 59, was arrested on 5 November 2019 in Trentola Ducenta, near Naples, after audio the girl had captured was handed to local media. The case drew national attention in Italy both for the abuse itself and for how long it took the authorities and the Church to respond.

Angelo Spinillo, the bishop of Aversa, became aware of the allegations by May 2018 and suspended Mottola at that time, also reporting the matter to prosecutors in Aversa. Despite that, no further action followed against the priest for well over a year.

The turning point came only after the recordings were aired on the investigative television programme Le Iene. With the audio public, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Naples (Napoli Nord) ordered Mottola’s arrest.

According to court reporting, the girl had first told her parents and people connected to the church what was happening, but was not believed — her own family initially doubted her because Mottola was the family’s trusted priest. Only then did she begin recording the encounters on her phone as a last resort. The recordings captured the priest attempting to coax, pressure and then silence her, including efforts to persuade her to retract her account and pretend nothing had happened; at points the child can be heard asking him to stop. As in other abuse cases, it was the victim’s own evidence that proved decisive.

The girl’s mother publicly credited her daughter’s resolve. “I am proud of my daughter; she was more cunning than the priest,” she said after the audio was broadcast.

Mottola confessed his responsibility to Bishop Spinillo, and the Aversa diocese in turn informed the Napoli Nord prosecutors — an account the courts later set out. The priest was held in custody for roughly four months following his arrest.

Conviction and sentence. On 24 September 2020, the Tribunale di Napoli Nord convicted Mottola and sentenced him to nine years in prison. The ruling, handed down by preliminary-hearing judge Vera Iaselli in an abbreviated (fast-track) trial, accepted in full the case assembled by the prosecution under chief prosecutor Francesco Greco; prosecutor Paolo Martinelli had sought nine years and six months. Mottola, who admitted his responsibility during the proceedings, was also ordered to pay damages to the girl. A separate canonical trial within the Catholic Church proceeded alongside the criminal case. The case had caused such outrage locally that, during the investigation, the girl’s father was reported to have chased down and assaulted the priest on a roadway.

Controversy over his return. The case resurfaced publicly in Italy around the turn of 2026, when Bishop Spinillo permitted Mottola to take part in a Santo Stefano procession in Qualiano and in a Mass marking the closing of the Jubilee at the Aversa cathedral — appearing alongside other priests and children serving as altar servers. The decision drew sharp criticism from those who saw it as inappropriate for a cleric convicted of abusing a child. The diocese responded with a statement saying Mottola had served the penalties imposed by both the state and ecclesiastical courts, that he remains subject to a bishop’s decree barring him from ministry and public events, and that his participation in the Jubilee liturgy was an exceptional and limited derogation that did not lift those restrictions.

This article discusses child sexual abuse. In the US, the National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at 1-800-656-4673; in the UK, the NSPCC helpline is 0808 800 5000.