Giovanni Giacinto Achilli (; c. 1803 – c. 1860) was an Italian Roman Catholic Dominican friar and anti-Jesuit who was discharged from the priesthood and imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition for being falsely accused of child sexual abuse or for doctrinal heresy. However, Achilli escaped and subsequently became a fervent evangelist for the Protestant Anglican Communion. He is particularly notable for his activities in England and for launching a successful criminal prosecution against John Henry Newman, who made accusations about Achilli's past, for libel. Early life as a priest Achilli was born in Celleno, a village c. 30 km from Viterbo, then part of the Papal States. He joined the Dominican order in 1819 and was ordained a priest in 1825. In 1833 Achilli obtained the degree of Master of Sacred Theology at the Roman College of St. Thomas, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, The Angelicum. In 1840, for being against the abuses of the Roman Inquisition, Achilli underwent a sequence of disciplinary actions and sanctions, largely arising from false accusation by his pro-Inquisition opponents of sexual misconduct including the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl in Naples. On 16 June 1841, the Roman Inquisition finally lost patience and permanently suspended Achilli from the cure of souls, sentencing him to three years' penance at a remote monastery at San Nazzaro. However, in 1842, Achilli made his way to Corfu, then a British protectorate, and claimed political asylum alleging that he was a cavaliere and that he had escaped from the fortress at Ancona. The local authorities were minded to grant the papal consul's request for extradition until they discovered that Achilli was claiming to have converted to Protestantism and was engaged in fervent anti-Catholic propaganda, largely under the influence of Isaac Lowndes, the Scottish Presbyterian secretary of the Bible Society. He also made alliances with exiled Italian nationalists. Malta and England After establishing himself in Malta in 1846, opening an Italian Protestant church, in May 1847 he travelled to London. There, the committee of the Protestant College of St Julian's, Malta, appointed him professor with a special mission to spread Protestantism in Italy. However, during his absence from Malta, two of his fellow Protestant preachers were accused of "fornication" and it was further alleged that Achilli had encouraged them in their misconduct. Achilli returned to Malta in December but was dismissed by the London committee, along with