Scotsman [Scotland]
April 3, 2007
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=510612007
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| Martin Macaskill and his wife Annie arrive at court for the case. Photo by The PA |
A priest at the centre of the Angelika Kluk murder trial has resigned his position at the church where her body was found, it was revealed to a jury yesterday.
Father Gerry Nugent, 63, said he had quit the post about two weeks ago, but no further details were disclosed as he began what is expected to be a lengthy period in the witness box.
The trial has heard that Fr Nugent had claimed to police that he had a sexual relationship with the Polish student.
Fr Nugent described to the High Court in Edinburgh how he met Ms Kluk, 23, and Peter Tobin, 60, the man who is accused of raping and murdering her.
He said Ms Kluk had "great vitality" and "loved life". He had known Tobin as Pat McLaughlin, a handyman who was "great" and who had quickly gained his trust, to the extent that he was given a free run of St Patrick's Church, Anderston, Glasgow, and its premises.
Earlier, Ms Kluk's lover, Martin Macaskill, said he continued to this day to ring her mobile phone, on which her voice could be heard on her answering service.
Tobin denies binding and gagging Ms Kluk, beating her about the head with a stick and striking her repeatedly with a knife on the body between 24 and 29 September last year. It is alleged that he concealed her body under the floor of St Patrick's.
Fr Nugent said he was ordained in 1967 and became parish priest of St Patrick's in 1998. People usually called him "Father Gerry".
Dorothy Bain, the advocate-depute, asked: "Have you resigned from your position there?"
Fr Nugent replied: "Yes. About a fortnight ago, if my memory serves me right."
He said there had been many volunteers who helped at the church, and listed several women who cleaned, made tea and coffee and counted the collection money on a Sunday.
"My vision was to try and have an open community in every aspect of that, literally from opening the church at seven in the morning to as late as I could manage. For me, the vision was a sacred place where anybody could come ... God's love and mercy applies to everyone and excludes nobody," Fr Nugent said.
A number of groups used the church, from Loaves and Fishes, a charity that provided food and clothes to the homeless, to Alcoholics Anonymous.
In the last three months, Fr Nugent had been approached by two women who wanted to use the church for Sex and Love Addicts, a support organisation.
Often, he let people stay in rooms in the chapel house, intending it to be for a couple of nights, but sometimes lasting much longer. He estimated in his eight years at St Patrick's, about 20 people had stayed.
Fr Nugent said he met Ms Kluk in summer 2005. He noticed her as a visitor who had been at Mass, and after about a month she approached him and asked if he could help her. She said she had accommodation near the church but had to leave, and asked if he knew of a parishioner who had a room to let. He told her to return in a few days.
"Unfortunately, I could not get anybody ... I said to her I wanted to show her something. I showed her the room that became her room. I thought maybe she would not want to stay in a church house. I said if she wanted to stay, feel free. She was delighted. I think she thought I was kidding her on," added the priest.
He never charged people who stayed, but they would do voluntary work around the church.
"I was full of admiration for her. She was very hard-working. She very much integrated herself in the community. She was a very serious student. She loved life. She wanted to learn a lot about life. She loved Glasgow, loved Scotland. She was a very hands-on person. She was very friendly, and just loved talking to people. She had great vitality. As regards religion ... she was very, very devout," said Fr Nugent.
The priest identified Peter Tobin as a man who had been introduced to him as Pat McLaughlin through the Loaves and Fishes charity. The person in charge of the group had asked permission to paint a room it used in the church, and said Tobin had volunteered.
Tobin went on to do other jobs and became a daily visitor.
"Anything that had to be done, he did, from wee, small jobs to actually painting the kitchen and changing the lights. I was not aware he was homeless. He smoked and every week I used to say, 'Look Pat, get yourself some cigarettes.' Once or twice, he stayed the night at St Patrick's," said Fr Nugent.
He explained that he gave Tobin a key, and a seat on the parish council because his handyman skills were useful when deciding work that needed to be done to the church. He had a free run of the place.
Ms Bain asked: "He quickly gained your trust?"
Fr Nugent said: "Yes. He was great."
The jury has heard that Ms Kluk's body was found in a void under the floor, which could be entered by a hatch just outside the confessional box. Fr Nugent said that before the discovery of the body, he had "no idea whatsoever [the hatch] was there".
Earlier, the defence counsel, Donald Findlay, QC, completed his cross-examination of Martin Macaskill.
The witness admitted that he had had sex with Ms Kluk in her room in the chapel house, and in the adjoining shower.
Mr Macaskill said that after Ms Kluk, whom he always named "Angela", had failed to respond to calls to her mobile phone or text messages, he became increasingly alarmed and searched for her at the church and elsewhere. He agreed that when he phoned, after receiving a final text message from her about 3pm on Sunday, 24 September, he was put through to voicemail.
"Every single call, up to the ones I still make today," he added.
Mr Macaskill repeatedly became upset when asked to look at entries in an electronic diary kept by Ms Kluk. One entry stated: "I sometimes feel I was like a nice teddy bear to Gerry. When it was interesting to play with me everything was OK but when I stopped to admire him as much as before, he just put me in the dark closet."
Mr Macaskill said he did not believe that Ms Kluk and Fr Nugent had had a sexual relationship, and he read no more into the diary entry than a change in attitude by Fr Nugent after he had discovered that Ms Kluk and Mr Macaskill were lovers.
"After he discovered, he essentially cut her off. He ostracised her," said Mr Macaskill.
Fr Nugent is due to continue his evidence when the trial resumes today.
THE CASE SO FAR
• DAY ONE: The dead student's father, Wladyslaw Kluk, 50, a divorced construction worker, was in tears as he explained that his daughter Angelika had taken summer working holidays in Scotland to help pay her way through university in Poland. She got free accommodation at St Patrick's Church, Glasgow, and, in return, cleaned and helped out in the complex, which also included a chapel house and a garage. The court also heard that Ms Kluk's body had been found under the floor of the chapel, access to which was through a hatch a few feet away from the confessional box.
• DAY TWO: Aneta Kluk, 23, followed her father into the witness box and told the court she believed Father Gerry Nugent, 66, the priest at St Patrick's, was an alcoholic. She branded as "outrageous and untrue" claims made by him to the police at the time of Angelika's disappearance, and in a later newspaper article, that he had had a sexual relationship with Angelika. The jury was told Angelika did have a lover in Scotland, a married man, Martin Macaskill, 40. Aneta Kluk said Father Nugent was a "Jekyll and Hyde sort of person" who had turned cold towards Angelika on learning of her affair with Mr Macaskill, and he had "not lifted a finger to help" when she went missing.
• DAY THREE: Martin Macaskill insisted he did not believe that Ms Kluk had been seeing other men during their affair. He had loved both his wife and Ms Kluk and did not want to lose either of them. He rejected out of hand the suggestion by the defence counsel, Donald Findlay, QC, that it had crossed his mind his wife might have been involved in Ms Kluk's death. Mr Macaskill said that when Ms Kluk had been reported missing to the police, "Pat", the church handyman, Peter Tobin, had said he had been working with her on painting a shed and must have been the last person to see her.
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