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	Priest Cleared of Sex Charge Ealing Times [United Kingdom] April 4, 2007 http://www.ealingtimes.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1305763.mostviewed.priest_cleared_of_sex_charge.php The "kindly" Benedictine priest accused of sexually molesting a choirboy during a confession has been cleared. Father Gerald Stanislaus Hobbs, a priest at Ealing Abbey for nearly 60 years and a teacher at St Benedict's public school was accused of indecently assaulting the boy in his office more than 20 years ago. The 76-year-old priest, who ran hiking and cycling clubs for the boys, joined his hands and mouthed thanks to the jury after they found him not guilty on the charge yesterday. The court had heard glowing testimonials from Ealing Abbey's abbot, Father Martin, and a former alter boy who travelled from Geneva to give evidence. The 32-year-old money broker, Ronan Kelly, said: "I consider Fr Stan to be the kindest and nicest old man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. "Absolutely nothing happened to give me any cause for concern during that time and nothing that could be considered inappropriate." Hobbs was cleared of the incident which was alleged to have happened between January 1985 and December 1986 when the boy was either 12 or 13 years old. The accuser, now a journalist in his 30s, said the priest had exposed himself and forced himself on the boy who was visiting his office to confess. The court also heard there had been a different incident in Italy on a school trip to which the Hobbs had verified the version of events presented to him by police. He said he believed the accusations over the incident at Ealing Abbey had been brought against him either through false-memory syndrome' or out of anger because he could not be prosecuted for what happened in Italy. Hobbs told the court earlier in the trial: "He couldn't get me in Italy where he could get me in England." The journalist also told the court he had not brought the claims against the priest for so long because Hobbs was a "very kind and very good". "One of the reasons I never told anyone was that Fr Stan was thought of as this lovely priest who loved all the children and was very kind to all the children and was certainly never thought of as someone who would do anything to children,£" he said. "He was always very kind and very good to us." The allegations surfaced after the journalist visited a hypnotherapist.
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