IRELAND
One in Four
A retired priest who is standing trial on sex charges yesterday admitted that he had kissed and embraced the complainant once, but denied that there was any sexual element to it.
Canon Denis Forde, aged 73, of The Presbytery, Dunmanway, Co Cork, has pleaded not guilty to four indecent assault charges.
Mary Morgan who helped out in the sacristy of the Church of the Incarnation at Grange, Douglas, Cork, said she was sexually assaulted on four occasions by the priest when she was in her early twenties.
Forde told Cork Circuit Criminal Court that he was totally flabbergasted when gardai arrived at the church in Dunmanway in May 2002 as he was preparing for Mass and arrested him. The priest was then questioned in Clonakilty garda station about the sexual assault allegations, which date back to the early 1980s.