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	'I Don't Give a Damn about Her' - What Priest Said after Angelika Vanished By John Robertson TheScotsman [Scotland] April 6, 2007 http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=528642007 A Priest said he did not "give a damn" about the Polish student Angelika Kluk, hours after she was reported missing, a court heard yesterday. Father Gerry Nugent, 63, made the comment at a time when friends and relatives of Ms Kluk, 23, were worried sick by her disappearance, and he explained it to a jury as something said in drink. He denied the reason was that he had known by then that Ms Kluk was dead, and so there was no-one to give a damn about. The priest also repeated his earlier claim that he and Ms Kluk had had a sexual relationship, and alleged that she initiated it. He told police in a statement: "She felt more strongly about me than I did about her." Ms Kluk's body was found under the floor of St Patrick's Church, Anderston, Glasgow, on Friday, 29 September, last year. The church handyman, Peter Tobin, 60, denies raping and murdering her, and concealing the body. It is alleged he beat her about the head with a stick and struck her repeatedly on the body with a knife. In relation to the rape allegation, Tobin says that he and Ms Kluk had sex, but with her consent. Ms Kluk had been staying at the church while on a working holiday in Scotland. Fr Nugent completed his evidence yesterday after almost three days in the witness box at the High Court in Edinburgh. He had said he was an alcoholic, but denied any involvement in the murder or in the disposal of the body. The trial has heard Ms Kluk was reported missing on the night of Monday, 25 September. The defence counsel, Donald Findlay, QC, suggested that, by then, the priest had not given a damn about Ms Kluk, but Fr Nugent replied: "No, I would not say that." He denied having been consumed by envy because she was seeing somebody else. He said his relationship with Ms Kluk had been during her visit to Scotland the previous summer, and after it ended they were not so close but remained "polite and courteous". Mr Findlay asked about a meeting Fr Nugent had with Simon Dames, a Catholic press officer, on the morning of Tuesday, 26 September. According to a statement by Mr Dames to the police, the priest had said he no longer gave a damn about Ms Kluk. Fr Nugent said he did not think Mr Dames would lie, or imagine that he had heard the comment. Mr Findlay said: "People were scared, worried sick about where she has gone, and you say you did not give a damn about her. Explain that to the ladies and gentlemen of the jury." Fr Nugent replied: "The only explanation I can give is I must have been drinking that morning. I know drink featured strongly that week in my life. I was abusing it, certainly." Mr Findlay put it to him that he had known there was no-one to give a damn about, because he knew she was dead and that the body was under the floor. Fr Nugent said: "I know nothing about the death or the circumstances of Angela's death. I was anxious at this time." When Mr Findlay suggested the reply of knowing nothing about the death had been used on "multiple occasions" during his evidence, Fr Nugent insisted: "I have not rehearsed anything." He told the jury that sex between him and Ms Kluk had grown out of their affection for one another. It had been mutual, although he took responsibility for his "weakness" and "lustfulness". He was not blaming Ms Kluk in any way, he said. Fr Nugent was referred to a statement he gave to police in which he said: "I was not initially attracted to her. She felt more strongly about me than I did about her, and it was her who initiated everything. It was not me." Asked which version was true, the one to police or his evidence, Fr Nugent said it was the police statement. The trial will resume on Tuesday after the Easter break.
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