Family origins and missionary work Daschbach's father was a steelworker in Pennsylvania. Richard Daschbach had just become a priest as a member of the
Steyler Missionaries (SVD) when he first came to the island of Timor in 1966. As a missionary, he was a pastor in the Indonesian part of Timor between Kefamenanu and the border with the colony of
Portuguese Timor, to which Oe-Cusse Ambeno belonged at the time. In 1982, seven years after the occupation of East Timor by the Indonesians, Daschbach went on foot to the Suco Naimeco in Oe-Cusse Ambeno and finally settled in Lelaufe as the local pastor. In 1988 he moved to Cutete (Suco Costa), where he founded the children's home Topu Honis Kutet in 1991. Daschbach speaks fluent Indonesian and Baikeno, the local dialect. He carried out all his religious activities in Baikeno. The Justice and Peace Commission of the Diocese of Dili presented a report in 2020 in which the allegations against Daschbach were refuted. It also named the victims and claimed that non-governmental organizations and supporters who had helped the girls were involved in organized crime, human trafficking and exploitation of children by having them medically examined and were guilty of the "crime of judicial mafia". Victims' lawyers sued the church for defamation. The priest who had led the commission was dismissed by Archbishop
Virgílio do Carmo da Silva. On November 6, 2020, the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith found Daschbach guilty of abusing minors. He was therefore expelled from the Society of the Divine Word on November 30 and dismissed as a priest. The Steyler Missionaries are said to have offered financial support to the victims, but according to their own statements, they failed due to the lack of cooperation from those who now run Daschbach's children's home. In January 2021, the visit of freedom hero and former president
Xanana Gusmão to Daschbach's house arrest caused a stir. Gusmão also publicly took sides with the ex-priest and accused the public prosecutor's office of "great illegality, irregularity and immorality". Gusmão appeared as a witness in the defamation suit against the church and twice accompanied Daschbach on the 13-hour ferry ride from Dili to Oe-Cusse for the trial. Gusmão's Australian ex-wife
Kirsty Sword Gusmão and his three sons, who live with her, wrote a letter to the victims in February expressing their disappointment at Xanana Gusmão's behavior. Sword Gusmão criticized the treatment of the victims and their supporters on
Facebook. Supporters of the victims include FOKUPERS (
Forum Komunikasaun ba Feto Timor). After three delays, partly due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, the trial against the now 84-year-old was opened in 2021. The prosecutor had already been replaced twice before the trial began. The charges were abuse of girls under the age of 14 in 14 cases between 1991 and 2018, possession of child pornography in one case, and domestic violence. The maximum sentence is 20 years in prison. In July 2021, Daschbach was accused by the law firm JUS Juridico Social Consultoria of threatening to kill the Brazilian-Portuguese lawyer Barbara Oliveira by his followers. He is said to have made the threat in passing in the courtroom at the Oe-Cusse District Court. The JUS represented the 17 victims at the trial. There had already been attempts to intimidate the girls via the internet. Daschbach was finally sentenced to twelve years in prison for abusing four girls in December 2021. The child pornography charge was dropped. == References ==