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	The Priest, His Lovers, a Handyman, and the Savage Murder of Angelika Sensational Trial under Way after Polish Woman's Bound Body Discovered under a Church Confession Box By Karin Goodwin The Independent [Scotland] April 8, 2007 http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2432465.ece The small church of St Simon's in Glasgow is always packed on a Sunday. Today, it will be overflowing as Catholics celebrate the holiest day of the year. Glasgow's growing Polish immigrant population favours St Simon's because mass is said in their own language. It is also where the congregation of nearby St Patrick's must now worship. That church has been closed since September last year, when the body of a Polish student was discovered under the floor near the confession booth. Angelika Kluk, 23, was bound and gagged and she had been beaten. It was a shocking discovery, but now Scotland is agog at the the extraordinary revelations of illicit sex and alcoholism that have been made during the trial of her alleged killer, Peter Tobin, a handyman at the church. All the more so, since the man who admits sleeping with her and to having a drink problem is Fr Gerard Nugent, the priest at St Patrick's. Ms Kluk, who was studying Scandinavian languages at Gdansk University, was spending the summer in Glasgow to earn money to continue her studies. It was her second summer in the city where her sister, Aneta, 28, also lives. The student had struck a deal with Fr Nugent, 63, that she would clean the church in return for accommodation in a small room in the chapel house. It seemed an ideal arrangement. But when Fr Gerry, as he prefers to be called, took the witness stand at Edinburgh High Court, he confessed to breaking his vows of chastity by having sex with Ms Kluk. Asked if he had sexual relations with Ms Kluk, he hesitated before his admission. The relationship, he claimed, was short, just a couple of weeks over the end of August and beginning of September, during which there were three or four sexual encounters. "I felt guilty," said the priest. "I felt ashamed and I was disgusted with myself. I take full responsibility. I knew it was wrong and I knew I was doing wrong. I knew I had to stop that part of the relationship." He denied that he had been in love with the student and conceded he had betrayed her trust. He also admitted that he had been an alcoholic 10 years ago and started drinking again around the time he met Ms Kluk. It affected his judgement, he told the court. Ms Kluk had been missing for five days before her body was found on 29 September. Strathclyde Police discovered it in a void under the floorboards close to the confessional of St Patrick's, which is in the Anderston area of Glasgow. The space was easily accessed by a trap door. Her alleged killer, Peter Tobin, 60, did odd jobs at the church using the name Pat McLaughlin. He had gone missing shortly after her disappearance, but was arrested in October and accused of rape and murder. The prosecution claims he covered Ms Kluk's mouth with tape and bound her hands before repeatedly striking her with a piece of wood, or similar object, striking her with a knife and then concealing the body. He is also charged with trying to pervert the course of justice by telling police he was called Patrick McLaughlin, and by claiming to staff at the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Hospital in London that his name was James Kelly. Mr Tobin denies all charges, and has lodged a special defence stating that he had consensual sex with Ms Kluk. Ms Kluk's love life was complicated. She had a 40-year-old married boyfriend, Martin MacAskill, a chauffeur who called her Angela and whose wife knew of their relationship. "I always got the impression they were friends," Mr MacAskill told the court when questioned about her relationship with Fr Gerry. "After he discovered the nature of our relationship, he cut her off. I got the impression from Angela that I was certainly no longer welcome at the chapel house so far as Gerry was concerned. The way she put it was he felt she had betrayed his trust - the fact we were having sexual relations in the chapel house." Her sister Aneta did not approve the relationship with Mr MacAskill. "She was worth more than that," she told the court. But on 25 September they went together to St Patrick's Church to look in Ms Kluk's room, where they found her purse, her passport and a diary entry recording her love for Mr MacAskill. There was also a ticket for a flight to Poland. She was due to return in October. Aneta Kluk also had harsh words for Fr Gerry. She branded him an alcoholic, described him as "a Jekyll and Hyde character" and dismissed his claims to have slept with her sister as "outrageous". There were more accusations in store for Fr Gerry. Mr Tobin is represented by one of Scotland's highest-paid QCs, Donald Findlay. In court, he called the priest a "coward and a liar" and accused him of knowing that Ms Kluk's body had been concealed beneath the floor of his church during the five days she was believed missing. Throughout the priest repeated: "I was not responsible for the death and I know nothing about the circumstances concerning the measure of death." He also claimed to have had an affair with the church guitarist, Sarah Howie, which she denies. Ms Kluk's father, Wladyslaw, 50, a construction worker, spoke through an interpreter about how committed his youngest daughter was to her studies and to the church, and how much she loved Scotland. "She was very successful," he said. "She was very good at school and she had a scholarship." The trial, which is expected to last six weeks, will resume on Tuesday. Meanwhile St Patrick's remains padlocked. Only a few limp floral tributes mark the tragedy. A card reads: "In hope that the darkness will not overshadow the light in this holy week."
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