English priest detained after sex attack on Rome train

Father Peter Slocombe was arrested in Rome on Monday

An English Catholic priest sexually assaulted a woman on a train in Rome before injuring two police officers, it has emerged.

Father Peter Slocombe was convicted in a closed court of sexual violence and injuring a public official.

He attacked the woman, 40, on Sunday and injured the officers as they tried to arrest him, Italian police say.

Slocombe, 73 and of Gloucestershire, denied the charges but was found guilty and sentenced on Tuesday.

At the hearing he was told he would be detained under house arrest at the Pontifical Beda College in Rome for two years and eight months.

He must also pay the officers, who needed hospital treatment for their injuries, 5,000 euros each.

Clifton Diocese, which covers his parish, said it believed Slocombe was on holiday at the time of the attack and expects an internal investigation to take place.

Slocombe was ordained in Rome and graduated from Beda College in 1978.

He has been parish priest at Saint Nicholas' Church in Winchcombe for more than 10 years, and parish priest for St Joseph's in Tewkesbury since 2013.

He is also chaplain to the University of Gloucester.

Slocombe has been parish priest at Saint Nicholas' Church in Winchcombe for more than 10 years