(Century Fox Post) Vatican City: Pope Benedict XVI's former butler, Paolo Gabriele has been found guilty of theft and sentenced to three years, reduced to 18 months due to his prior clean record.
The verdict of the speedy trial that ended today was delivered after a thought of at least an hour by judges.
Initially, he was sentenced to three years in prison but it was cut short to 18 months after Defence lawyer Cristiana Arru asked the presiding judge Guiseppe Dalla Torre to give thought to Gabriele's clean record and past services to the Pope and to the Church.
As per BBC report, Gabriele, during the final appeal said, "The thing I feel most strongly is the conviction of having acted out of visceral love for the Church of Christ and of its leader on earth."
"I do not feel I am a thief", he added.
In June, during a grilling session, he confessed of stealing secret documents from the Pope's palace. He also admitted that he used the codename "Maria" to meet with an Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi to pass him the secret papers.
He felt guilty that he betrayed the trust of the pontiff he loved like a father.
Gabriele was working as Pope’s butler from 2005 and he was arrested in May this year on charges over leaks of secret papers that revealed fraud scandals, corruption and internal strife.
His arrest came after an Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi released a book called “His Holiness”, in 2010, which is said to be based on the confidential papers from Vatican.
Vatican gendarmes said the search for the person behind leaks lead to the investigation at Gabriele's home in the Vatican that discovered thousands of secret papers as well as original papers with Pope’s handwriting in German.
But Pope is expected to pardon him.
Last Tuesday, former butler was repeatedly interrupted by the presiding judge -- one of three who delivered the verdict.
Gabriele has claimed him to be a whistleblower who wanted to root out corruption from the Vatican after observing that the Pope was being manipulated and also was not well informed.
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Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
