president vladimir putin has made the decision to invade ukraine — with an attack on kyiv expected in the coming days. mr biden said the united states and its allies would stand together in full support of the people of ukraine. nine people have been killed as storm eunice left a trail of destruction across parts of northern europe. deaths were reported in the netherlands, belgium, britain and ireland — many of the victims crushed by falling trees. gusts of close to 200kmph have been recorded. canadian police have made at least a hundred arrests as they move to end a truck drivers�* blockade of the capital ottawa. more than 20 vehicles have been towed away. drivers spent the last three weeks protesting against mandatory coronavirus vaccinations to cross into the united states. now on bbc news, our rome correspondent mark lowen

investigates how italy is failing to tackle the scourge of clerical sex abuse. this film contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting. in the shadow of the vatican are the dark secrets that italy itself has buried... ..clerical sex abuse of minors believed to be extensive but undocumented. there is a lot of resistance in the system of society in italy to talk about it, even to talk about it. italy has the world's highest number of priests and the seat of the catholic church in its backyard, but it's not faced up to its sins, hidden away by a veil of secrecy.

bells toll. for many italians, the church is as central to their culture as the family. more than 80% here identify as catholic, children embraced by it from baptism. and it can seem an unchallengeable authority. judging by other countries that have confronted abuse, it's thought there could have been hundreds of thousands of such crimes committed here. we've set out to discover how they've been concealed. well, the culture of silence around clerical sex abuse in italy means that it's very

hard to find victims or survivors, as they call themselves, willing to speak, but we've tracked down one not far from rome who says he was abused for 16 years by a priest, starting at the age of eight. he's never spoken to the media before, but now he's willing to talk, and we're off to meet him. the man we'll call mario requested we hide his identity and not ask him directly about the details of his abuse. it revolves around this priest, gianni bekiaris. the case documents allege in graphic detail how he raped mario for years, using his power to prey on the young child, destroying him physically and emotionally. mario was terrified

into silence and submission, his parents unaware of what was going on, naively proud that an important man of the cloth would value their son.

the trauma led him to drugs, psychological collapse, and repeated suicide attempts. it took years to open up to a therapist, which helped him settle down with a wife and son.

mario tried to seekjustice, approaching bekiaris�* superior, bishop ambrogio spreafico. he began a first court process, led by the vatican's congregation for the doctrine of the faith under religious or canon law — the way the catholic church deals with problems internally. mario saw it as a whitewash, a system swinging into place to protect the abuser. we've got hold of the judgment from the canon law trial convened by bishop spreafico, which recognised bekiaris�* guilt, adding that, while the priest disputed some details, he confessed the abuse took place. he even paid mario 112,000

euros as a sort of damages. but the panel did not dismiss him, as mario requested. instead, they banned him from working with minors for life. feeling betrayed by every part of the church institution, mario and his lawyer tried an alternative legal route — this time, through italian criminaljustice. the documents that we've obtained from this trial show judges concluded there was no doubt about the veracity of the accusations but ruled a trial couldn't proceed because, under italy's cumbersome legal system, the crimes had expired under a time limit, or statute of limitations, which has allowed countless other sex abuse cases to go unpunished.

italian law is currently being reformed so the statute of limitations can no longer be used to string out or obstruct a trial. but the reform doesn't apply retrospectively. mario's lawyer says the deeper problem is with italy's constitution and the 1929 lateran pact. signed by mussolini, the treaty gave the vatican legal autonomy from italy. with it, the clergy has recourse to vatican law over that of italy — in effect, shielding them from italian justice. pope francis has brought in some reforms to tackle the issue — abolishing,

for example, a rule called pontifical secrecy that was used to hush up sex abuse... ..and announcing this recent initiative for those who suffered. many, though, say it's too little, too late. i've come to rome's pontifical university, where a specific course on the topic brings together theology students from around the world. well, these kinds of initiatives are a direct attempt by the catholic church to address the scandal of clerical sex abuse that has torn through it over the last few years — a diploma teaching students about safeguarding abuse victims. but the really interesting thing here is that, among the student body, there are 17 nationalities represented but no italians, and that, in itself,

speaks volumes. and that tallies with the fact that, in italy, there are no official figures on sex abuse — something that troubles the man leading the university course, father hans zollner, who's also on the vatican's commission for the protection of minors. from all the reports we have — from france, from germany, from the uk, from the united states, from australia — you can see that it was about 4—5% of priests who were either convicted of abuse or were accused of it through alleged perpetrators. so, this is true for all these countries. so, in all probability, there would be a similar number for italy to be expected. in france, a damning report last year found at least 216,000 children had been abused since 1950 by around 3,000 clergymen.

italy has more than twice as many priests as france, so there's likely to have been hundreds of thousands of cases here. but despite the un calling for an independent commission in italy three years ago, there's been no such reckoning. there is a lot of resistance in the system of society in italy to talk about it, even to talk about it. in great britain, in australia, in the us, in germany, society came to a point to confront this issue, and then the church had also to confront it. we've heard of another survivor willing to tell his story, and we're heading to meet him. cezary babicz, originally from poland, was lured to italy by his polish priest, who also moved here, and then abused him sexually and psychologically.

as an adult, cezary went to confront his abuser, secretly filming the meeting and the priest's admission. he too was granted a canon law trial. once again, there was no decision to expel the priest and, once again, italianjudges ruled the crime had expired. since then, the abuser has disappeared. there's just one association in italy, based in the north, which supports victims of clerical abuse, and we've come to meet its founder — an abuse survivor himself. ciao, francesco. sono mark. piacere.

from his tiny apartment, his site, called the abuse network, brings together confidential tip—offs and public reports to map italy's abusers, and connect survivors with lawyers willing to help.

some priests accused of sex abuse spend time in a network of sort of rehabilitation centres run by the church. there are several across italy for priests in difficulty, as they're called. many here are drug abusers or have gambling addictions — not all of them are accused of sex abuse. but the victims of the sex abuse say that this is one way in which priests are kept away from prying eyes and away from the italian justice system. we've got very rare access to one of them now to ask the founder what goes on in here.

so, the pope came here.

but survivors like mario do see a cover—up. we've discovered that, despite his confession, mario's abuser, gianni bekiaris, still works near to where his crimes are alleged to have taken place.

0ver weeks of tracking bekiaris online, we've found how he celebrates mass in different towns. he's still listed as a priest on the website of his diocese. that a man with his past can be allowed to preach the word of god just beggars belief. should a priest, who is known to have abused, who has confessed to the abuse, who has even paid damages to the victim, should that priest be defrocked under canon law? i'm not familiar with the case but, if the procedure, the investigation, establishes that he has committed the crime, he should be dismissed, of course. and if there is any kind of activity that brings him into contact with minors, that goes obviously against the verdict. recent pictures of bekiaris even show he's continued to celebrate mass with minors present.

we decide to find him and seek answers.

in our pursuit of the truth in a case that symbolises italy's cloak of injustice, we went up a level — to the priest's superior.

we looked into it, and the vatican told us the ban, which it claims heals and atones, does not stop an abuser celebrating mass as long as minors there are never left alone. so, it's down to loopholes, technicalities, interpretations of verdicts that mario and his son could one day find themselves at mass given by the priest who abused him. without a fundamental shift in society, there's little hope that italy will look deep inside its soul and offer justice to those whose childhood and faith were cruelly robbed.

hello, there. storm eunice turned out to be every bit as powerful and damaging as anticipated. this storm swirled its way eastwards across the uk, with the strongest winds on its southern flank across the southern half of the uk. the strongest gust of all, at needles on the isle of wight, was 122 mph — provisionally the strongest wind gust ever recorded in england. but plenty of other places, including at gatwick and heathrow airports, a long way inland, had their strongest winds in around 15 or 20 years. and further north, winds were less of a feature but snow came down, turning parts of scotland into a winter wonderland.

now, our storm system is sliding quickly away eastwards, but there is more unsettled weather on the way for the weekend. we will have more wet and windy weather, but nothing quite as stormy as we've seen over the last 2a hours or so. so, during saturday, outbreaks of rain pushing in from the west, snow over high ground in wales, the north midlands, northern england — potentially even to low levels. some snow for parts of northern ireland and southern scotland, as well. gales accompanying this weather feature across some southern and western coasts. there will be some sunshine to be had, as well — temperatures north to south between four and 11 degrees. and then, during saturday night, well, this first area of rain clears away eastwards — still some residual rain and snow moving across scotland — and then a more active weather system moves in from the west. heavy rain and, once again, some strengthening winds. but with that cloud, with the outbreaks of rain, it will be turning really quite mild as we head into the first part of sunday morning. for sunday, we find ourselves between these two weather fronts in an area of windy,

cloudy and, at times, wet weather, but mild weather — that could melt some of the snow that we've seen across parts of scotland, that could cause some flooding issues. and through the afternoon, we'll see cloud and rain continuing to affect parts of england and wales, especially around western hills. brighter skies with showers — some wintry — for northern ireland and scotland. gusty winds again — 110,50, 60 mph or more in the most exposed spots. not as windy as it has been, but it could hamper any clear—up operations. temperatures ten to 1a degrees, although i think northern areas will turn chillier as the day wears on. so the weekend summed up like this — more wet and windy weather, not as severe as it has been, but you can keep up to date with the latest weather warnings on our website.

this is bbc news, i'm rich preston. our top stories... president biden says he's convinced vladimir putin has made the decision to invade ukraine — with an attack on kyiv expected in the coming days. we're calling out russia's plans loudly and repeatedly not because we want a conflict but because we are doing everything in our power to remove any reason russia may give to justify invading ukraine and prevent them from moving. storm eunice continues moving eastward — after leaving a trail of destruction in the uk and northern europe. canadian police say they've made at least a hundred arrests as they move to end the blockade of ottawa. and brad pitt sues his ex—wife — angelina jolie — for selling her stake in the french vineyard where they got married.