No evidence German bishop sexually abused children

AUGSBURG - There is no proof that embattled German Bishop Walter Mixa sexually abused children, a prosecutor said Friday.

However, new evidence has emerged relating to allegations that he physically beat children in his care in the past.

Mixa, 69, who was Bishop of Augsburg, tended his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI last month, after admitting to having slapped teenagers in the face while he was a parish priest 20 to 30 years ago.

He is also under investigation for having embezzled orphanage funds.

“There is no proof of sexual abuse,” Helmut Walter, state prosecutor, told DPA.

But a special investigator, Sebastian Knott, said former residents of a children’s home had given credible testimonies of the abuse they allegedly suffered at the hands of Mixa, who was parish priest in the town of Schrobenhausen until 1996.

According to the testimonies, Mixa punched children or beat them with a stick, frequently egged on by the nuns working in the home. He reportedly beat one girl until she collapsed.

Knott said several of the victims began crying as they recounted their ordeal.

“He often said sentences such as: ‘Satan is in you, I will drive him out of you’,” Knott quoted a man who had lived in the children’s home as a child.