Priest Sentenced for Abusing Senegalese Boys

A French Catholic priest once known as a leading campaigner against child prostitution was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing six Senegalese teenage boys a decade ago.

Father Francois Lefort, 59, who is also a physician, was described by the prosecution in Paris as “a saint fallen into the gutter.” Lefort did humanitarian work in Senegal in the 1980s and ‘90s. The prosecution said he abused the teenagers at a home in Dakar, the nation’s capital, and at a house in Paris where he took some of them when attending conferences.