AUSTRALIA
The Mercury
By GAVIN LOWER
23feb06
A FORMER college priest accused of sexually abusing four boys more than 30 years ago entered the witness box yesterday to deny the allegations against him.
Roger Michael Bellemore, 70, has pleaded not guilty to four charges of maintaining a sexual relationship with a young person at Marist College in Burnie between 1967 and 1971.
Mr Bellemore told the Supreme Court jury in Hobart he'd never had the boys in his room, which was upstairs from the college's junior dormitory.
He denied touching or sexually assaulting the boys and said he could not remember them at the school.
Four former students, who cannot be named, have told the court they were sexually assaulted by Mr Bellemore in his room before bed time.