Ex-priest in Hong Kong gets 4 1/2-years for sex abuse of altar boy

A former priest who was convicted of molesting a 15-year-old altar boy in a pedophilia-and-coverup case that rocked Hong Kong's Roman Catholic Church was sentenced Monday to 4 1/2 years in jail.

Judiciary spokeswoman Jamie Or confirmed that District Court judge Maggie Poon ordered Michael Lau, 42, jailed for 4 1/2 years for crimes committed in 1991 and 1992.

Or said she had no other details. Local TV and radio stations reported that Poon said in sentencing Lau that he had betrayed the trust given to him as a minister of the church and caused the mental sufferings of the victim for the past 11 years.

Last month, Poon found Lau guilty of two counts of indecent assault, one of attempted sodomy and one of gross indecency. She ordered Lau to undergo psychiatric and psychological tests and to remain in jail while awaiting sentencing.

One of Lau's defense lawyers, Bernard Chung, said Monday that reports from the tests indicated that Lau did not suffer from any mental illness.

Chung said they haven't decided whether to appeal the case.

Lau, now an insurance agent, is the only person arrested so far in the child sex scandal that hit Hong Kong's Roman Catholic Church last year and mirrored a crisis that has ensnared the church in the United States and elsewhere.

The church defrocked Lau in 1995 after an internal investigation found that he twice molested the victim an altar boy at the time.

The victim is now 27 and cannot be identified by name, but is said to have suffered from schizophrenia for several years after the abuse.

The church never reported its findings to the police. But after more cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests who worked in Hong Kong emerged last year, church officials said they had adopted a zero-tolerance policy and would be more cooperative with the authorities.

Bishop Joseph Zen, Roman Catholic leader in Hong Kong, said the church would have a statement in a few days.

"We want to have a look at the judgment and then we will have a statement," Zen said.