The Vatican was expected to announce by the end of this week that Paolo Gabriele, Pope Benedict's former butler arrested in May in the VatiLeaks scandal, will face trial this coming autumn for the aggravated theft of papal documents.

"We expect a formal charge," his defence lawyer, Carlo Fusco, told the Ansa news agency on Monday. The lawyer and Vatican investigators have insisted the Mr Gabriele acted alone in smuggling hundreds of confidential documents to several Italian reporters that began publishing them in January. The investigators were to announce the results of the inquiry into the leaking scandal by Saturday.