Exorcism priest is jailed for nun death

AN ORTHODOX priest and four nuns have been sentenced to a total of 38 years' jail in Romania after they were convicted of killing a young nun who died when they left her strapped to a crucifix with a cloth stuck in her mouth during a five-day exorcism ritual.

Father Petru Corogeanu was jailed for 15 years, Sister Nicoleta Arcalianu for eight years, and Sisters Adina Cepreaga, Simona Bardanas and Elena Otel for five years each. They were also ordered to pay 1,700 compensation to the dead nun's parents.

They told the court in Vaslui, eastern Romania, that they had performed an exorcism to try and help 23-year-old Irina Cornici, and pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally detaining a person against her will and causing her death.

The five kept Ms Cornici locked in a room for five days at the Tanacu Monastery, hanging on a cross with no water or food and a towel stuck in her mouth, in June 2005. They said at the time that she had been possessed by Satan and that they had been compelled to carry out an exorcism.

But the young woman fell unconscious after a few days and never recovered.

It emerged after her death that Ms Cornici had been diagnosed as a schizophrenic and her "possession" was unlikely to have been more than a series of schizophrenic episodes.

But Corogeanu told the court during a 45-minute hearing that the exorcism ritual he and the nuns had performed was "quite normal" and blamed doctors who attended to Cornici for her death.

He said: "I consider myself not guilty because Irina Cornici's death was not down to the fact that we kept her locked up.

"We tied her up because she kept hitting and harming herself and we would have found her dead in her room eventually.

"I admit I tied her up and stuck a towel in her mouth and kept her like this for five days. I admit that I used to cover her mouth with tape while she took part in daily Mass, but only because I did not want her to disturb the service.