A German Catholic priest was sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Cologne court for sexually abusing children.

The 70-year-old has also been ordered to pay damages to joint plaintiffs of €5,000 ($5,587), €10,000 and €35,000.

The prosecution had been seeking a prison sentence of 13 years for the man; his defence a maximum of eight years.

The indictment of the pedophiles priest detailed allegations of abuse in 118 cases.

He was said to have abused children and adolescents over many years, his youngest victim was a 9-year-old girl.

The priest forced children to engage in sexual intercourse, oral sex and many other sexual acts.

Other victims came forward over the course of the trial, whereupon the charges were extended and the priest was remanded in custody, and the court was convinced that he could re-offend.

The conviction came at a time of intense scrutiny for the German Catholic Church, after a recent independent report detailed decades of alleged sexual abuse and misconduct in the Munich Archdiocese.

The Cologne archdiocese’s handling of this latest case was also criticized over the course of the trial.

Leading members of the archdiocese were supposedly made aware of the allegations and rumours but the offender was nonetheless allowed to be alone with children on repeated occasions.

The archdiocese even paid his legal fees at one point when he was facing investigation, that probe was initially dropped when the priest’s nieces rescinded their allegations against him.

Cologne archdiocese officials denied any responsibility in the trial.

“We have acted consistently,” Stefan Hesse, the archbishop of Hamburg and former head of personnel in Cologne, said in his testimony.

(dpa/NAN)