Accomplice to Pope's butler goes on trial

A computer programmer accused of helping the Pope's former butler leak confidential documents has gone on trial in the Vatican.

Claudio Sciarpelletti is standing trial over charges of aiding and abetting in connection with the theft of the documents, reports Zenit news agency.

His trial comes weeks after Paolo Gabriele was found guilty of stealing the documents from the Pope's apartments.

The sensitive documents were passed by Gabriele to a member of the Italian press who used them in a bestselling book on the Vatican.

Gabriele was sentenced to 18 months in prison. If found guilty, Sciarpelletti faces up to a year behind bars.

The trial got underway on Monday and will be followed by another hearing on Saturday, when Sciarpelletti's superior in the Secretariat of State, Monsignor Carlo Polvani is expected to testify.