Pope Benedict XVI’s former butler Paolo Gabriele on Saturday got 18 months in prison for stealing secret documents from the Vatican that revealed fraud and intrigue. Presiding judge Giuseppe Dalla Torre gave the ex-butler three years but immediately reduced the sentence on the grounds of his past service to the Catholic Church and his apology to the pope for betraying him. The Vatican’s spokesman Federico Lombardi told journalists after the verdict that the pope was “very likely” to pardon Gabriele. The former butler was found guilty of stealing hundreds of sensitive Vatican documents, including letters from cardinals and politicians and papers that the pontiff himself had marked “To Be Destroyed”. “In the name of his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who reigns in glory, and invoking the Holy Trinity… this court sentences the defendant to three years in prison,” the judge said as Gabriele looked on impassively. Dalla Torre said he had taken into consideration “the absence of a criminal record, his service record preceding these charges and the subjective though erroneous motivation provided by the defendant as to his motivation”. Gabriele’s “declaration of his acknowledgement of having betrayed the trust of the holy father” had also weighed in his favour and led to a shorter sentence. The Vatican’s prosecutor, Nicola Picardi, had called for the former butler to go to jail for three years. “It was a good sentence,” said Gabriele’s lawyer Cristiana Arru, who added that she would “have to evaluate” whether her client would appeal the ruling which brought to an end a trial that began just a week ago. Lombardi, who described the verdict as “mild and fair”, said Gabriele would remain under house arrest “while the pope evaluates his position”. The possibility he will be pardoned “is very concrete and very likely” he said, although he could not give details as to when the pope’s pardon might come. In his final statement, Gabriele said he had “acted out of visceral love for the Church of Christ and of its leader on earth”. The former butler had claimed from the start that he wanted to root out “evil and corruption” at the heart of the Catholic Church after observing that the 85-year-old pontiff was not well informed and perhaps even “manipulated”. Using the codename “Maria”, Gabriele met with an Italian journalist over several months and passed him the confidential documents.
