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The priest was arrested and charged with sex crimes, as well as failure to assist a person at medical risk.
A priest in Poland was arrested and charged with sex crimes earlier this week after a man overdosed on erectile dysfunction pills at an orgy he hosted in August last year and emergency services were allegedly denied entry into the location of the party.
The priest, identified as Tomasz Zmarzły of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels by The Daily Mail, was charged with sex and drug crimes, as well as failure to assist a person at medical risk. The unspecified sexual offense carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison.
“Three of the charges are drug-related offenses, one of which is for giving another person an illegal substance. Another charge is related to violating another person’s sexual freedom. The fourth charge concerns causing serious bodily injury and failing to provide assistance to a person whose health and life was in danger," a spokesperson of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Sosnowiec, Waldemar Lubniewski, told the Polish press, according to the country's largest online news network, Onet.
Zmarzły is being detained while the case is further investigated, as Lubniewski explained: "The court decided to apply this preventive measure for two months due to the threatening of the suspect and the fear of obstruction of justice."
Polish media initially reported that a man collapsed at Zmarzły's party after he took too many erectile dysfunction pills. Paramedics arrived after one attendant called an ambulance, but were refused entry. The man only received medical attention once the police were called. Polish news outlets also first reported that the man was a sex worker, but the prosecution has since denied that, according to Onet.
Zmarzły was suspended from his position in the church after news of the scandal first broke. The head of the local diocese, bishop Grzegorz Kaszak, resigned in October after asking Pope Francis to approve his exit and "forgive my human limitations,” CNN reports. The church has since launched its own investigation into Zmarzły.
Zmarzły issued a statement to Polish news outlet Gazeta Wyborcza at the time, saying: “I perceive this as an obvious attack on the church, including the clergy and the faithful, in order to humiliate its position, tasks, and mission. If anything like it had happened to a person little known, about another profession, not a clergyman, it would not be a matter at all."
