An 11-year-old girl used a phone to record a pedophile priest sexually abusing her after parishioners refused to believe her.

Italian priest Michele Mottola is accused of sexual abuse after a young girl recorded him molesting her.

The girl, too ashamed to talk about her parents' abuse, first approached two parishioners who refused to believe her.

So, to provide proof, she made the recording on her mobile phone as evidence.

In the disturbing recording, the priest asked the young girl to kiss and hug him.

While the girl protested, the priest continued:

"There is no one here. Are you afraid? Kiss me, hug me."

In a second recording, after the sound of heavy breathing, the girl objected to the priest's apparent advances.

She pleaded:

"Enough, enough!"

The priest then replied:

"Take this to dry yourself."

A few weeks later, the girl told the priest that she had reported the incident to other parishioners. But he defended his actions and threatened her.

He told the girl:

"You didn't have to do it because now they will understand other things. Things will get very bad. I will come to your home to talk to your parents."

He also accused the young girl of lying, saying:

"You can't tell lies. Did you understand you can lie?"

"You're like Islamic suicide bombers, throwing a bomb, killing people, and leaving. The mud ends up also on your family and on you."

The priest also tried to force the girl into silence, saying:

"Can you say that you have invented everything to the limit? Everything that I took you to the bedroom ... everything. So ... we take this mess out of the way ... we pretend that it never happened, we don't talk about it anymore, okay?"

After the girl played the recording to other parishioners, they eventually intervened.

One of them parishioners recalled the young girl telling him of the assaults.

He said:

"The child told me in confidence, 'You know there is someone in the parish who does things to me. It is Don Michele. He kisses me.'"

The parishioners then spoke to the girl's family, and the girl's mother finally reported the crime to the bishop.

Though the Church suspended the priest, police arrested him after local media played the recording to the public. This was about five months since the girl took the recording.

In the Italian current affairs show, the girl's mother praised her daughter for her approach.

She said:

"My daughter was smarter than him, she was good, eh? She was very good, and I'm proud of my daughter."

Pedophiles often use manipulative techniques of 'grooming' their underage victims and pretending to be loving and caring adults. They also give them gifts and try to win their families over.

In Mottola's case, he had earned the girl's family's trust by regularly visiting them. He even showered the girl with gifts, including a jacket, watch, and computer.

So, the girl knew that if she reports the abuse to her mother, she won't believe her.