Catholic priest charged with rape of 4 alter girls

A CATHOLIC priest appeared before the Madang District Court yesterday charged with raping four young girls, all believed to be minors, at his parish in Madang.
Fr Stanis Tibong, 34, from Aidibal village in the Bogia district, appeared before senior magistrate Josephine Kilage on four counts of rape.
Three of these girls were 16 years old and one 14 at the time of the offence.
It is alleged that the priest in a position of trust had breached the trust to abuse them at the Halopa Parish in Bogia on different occasions this year.
All of them were parish alter girls.
Tibong had applied for bail but Kilage rejected it and remanded him at the Beon jail. Kilage advised Tibong to appeal for bail before the National Court.
When adjourning the case to next month, the magistrate advised police to work with the victims to prepare their court files.