A Brazilian priest, Fr Bonifacio Buzzi, accused of molesting children in Minas Gerais state, committed suicide on August 7 in his cell, Brazilian authorities have said.

Local authorities said Fr Buzzi hanged himself with bed sheets in his cell a day after being arrested. In 1995, he was found guilty of abusing several youngsters in a mental hospital and sentenced to four years of house arrest.

In 2004, he was found guilty of molesting an 11-year-old boy but fled before authorities could detain him. He was arrested in 2007 and imprisoned until 2015.