Pope attacks media over butler 'leak' scandal

The Pope has condemned as "gratuitous" the media's coverage of a scandal involving the arrest of his butler on suspicion of stealing confidential Vatican documents.

In his first public comments on the affair, Pope Benedict XVI spoke in unusually forthright terms. At the end of an audience in St Peter's Square, he said: "Suggestions have multiplied, amplified by some media which are totally gratuitous and which have gone well beyond the facts."

Paolo Gabriele, the Pope's butler, was arrested last week and is being held in "secure rooms" inside the Vatican.

His cell, and an attached bathroom, is subject to 24-hour camera surveillance. He has agreed to co-operate fully with investigators, suggesting he may implicate others, possibly much more senior figures.

Vatican magistrates are reportedly collaborating with the Italian secret service in intercepting suspects' mobile phone calls and emails.

While Gabriele, 46, is a Vatican citizen, other suspects are said to be Italians, meaning the Vatican would have no jurisdiction over them.

Many Vatican experts believe the butler did not act alone, and that he may have been used simply as the courier of the stolen documents by more powerful figures.

Many of the leaked papers reflect poorly on Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the de facto "prime minister" of the Vatican, and there is speculation that disaffected cardinals are trying to discredit him.