Catholic priest 'dug up body of child saint to move it closer to his mother's grave'

Bailed: Father Wojciech Jasinski leaves Worcester Crown Court where he had faced charges of removing a corpse from a grave

A Catholic priest has appeared in court charged with body-snatching the remains of a child 'saint'.



Father Wojciech Jasinski, 40, is accused of illegally exhuming the bones of Witold Orlowski from his grave in Herefordshire.



The 14-year-old Polish schoolboy died in a Mexican village in 1944 after praying to God to take his life in order to save the terminally ill village priest, Father Jozef Jarzebowski.



Witold died shortly after, while Father Jarzebowski made a full recovery - sparking calls from Polish Catholics for the teenager to be canonised.



Today Jasinski appeared at Worcester Crown Court charged with 'removing a corpse from a grave contrary to common law' between 2008 and 2010.



He was due to plead but the case was adjourned to give the prosecution and defence more time to prepare for the 'extremely unusual case'.

Jasinski was arrested after police received a complaint that Witold's remains were missing from his original grave at St Raphael's Convent in Lower Bullingham.

The boy had been buried there after his mother, Zofia moved to Herefordshire in the 1950s to work at a school set up by Father Jarzebowski. Before arriving in the UK, she put her son's remains in a metal box which she hid in a suitcase and smuggled into the country, later having them buried at the convent.

The grave became a memorial which thousands of Polish pilgrims visited each year.

Zofia and Father Jarzebowski later moved to Fawley Court, in Oxfordshire, where Zofia remained until her death in 1995, aged 90.

The 17th century mansion is the former home of Jasinski's religious order, the Marian Fathers. It has since been sold and is now the home of philanthropist Aida Hersham and her partner, Marks and Spencer heir Patrick Sieff.

Sacred ground: The former St Raphael's Convent in Bullingham where Witold Orlowski was originally buried

After discovering Witold's remains in the grounds of Fawley Court, police ordered the body to be exhumed again and reburied in a child's coffin in his mother's grave.



Jasinski was bailed yesterday and ordered to return to court at the beginning of July.



Judge Toby Hooper QC also put the case back to allow Jasinski to carry out missionary work in the Ukraine.



He said: 'This is an extremely unusual case and I wish it to be carefully considered.'



Mary Wallace, prosecuting said: 'It is clearly a unique common law offence.



'The case law is extremely old and the Crown wants to consider their position.'