True Man of God Haunted by His Own Demons, by Chris Musson, Glasgow Evening Times [Scotland], Ìàó 4, 2007

True Man of God ... Haunted by His Own Demons

By Chris Musson
Glasgow Evening Times [Scotland]
Ìàó 4, 2007

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.1378833.0.true_man_of_god_haunted_by_his_own_demons.php

He was one of Glasgow's best-known priests - a rock of the communities he served, who opened his door to anyone in need, regardless of colour or creed.

But crouched over the witness stand at the High Court, palms flat on the wooden surface and puffing out his increasingly reddening cheeks, shamed Father Gerry Nugent was a pale shadow of the cheerful figure who just two years earlier had been the face of the Catholic Church in a city-wide anti-bigotry campaign.

His four days giving evidence were a humiliating fall from grace for the once-respected clergyman, as lurid details emerged of the 63-year-old's lust for Angelika Kluk and damning revelations about his apparent unwillingness to help search for the student the day after she disappeared.

During the trial, Father Gerry - as he was affectionately known to friends, fellow clergy and parishioners at St Patrick's Church in Anderston - had been exposed as an alcoholic and branded a "Jekyll and Hyde" character and a "sex pest" with a weakness for women.

Father Gerry: the questions

IN COURT, Father Gerry's conduct was called into question on a string of occasions:

1 - Father Gerry told the trial of his admiration for Angelika, her vitality and her love of life. He said he felt 'guilty, ashamed and disgusted' with himself for their claimed sexual relationship.

2 - In a police statement, the priest said he was 'very fond' of Angelika but 'not intensely attracted' to her. He said they were sexually intimate on three or four occasions in summer 2005, but added: 'She felt more strongly about me than I did about her and it was her who instigated everything.' However in court he said the relationship was 'mutual'.

3 - Defence QC Donald Findlay said Father Gerry was a 'despicable coward' and a liar for claiming Angelika had seduced him.

4 - In his evidence, the priest denied he was consumed by jealousy and rage after finding a used condom and birth control pills in Angelika's room, which confirmed the student was having an affair with married Martin MacAskill.

5 - In her diary, Angelika wrote Father Gerry thought of her as 'teddy bear'. She wrote: 'When it was interesting to play with me everything was OK, but when I stopped admiring him as much as before he just put me in the dark closet.'

6 - Angelika later branded Father Gerry a 'moron' in her diary for the way he treated her after he discovered her affair with Mr MacAskill.

7 - A press officer for the Catholic Church in Glasgow told how the priest said he 'no longer gave a damn' about Angelika the day after she was reported missing.

8 - Church musician Sarah Howie, 45, said Father Gerry was a 'liar and a sex pest' who had chased and harassed her. Earlier Father Gerry claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Ms Howie several years ago.

And what about the trap door?

1 -The priest repeatedly denied he had known about the existence of a trap door, just feet from his confessional, where Angelika's body was found. He said he had heard about it only several weeks after the murder.

2 - But the trial was read a police statement from a friend of Father Gerry, who said the priest told her in the days after the grim discovery that the body had been found 'under a trap door by the confessional'.

3 - Another witness, a Russian student who was staying in the house, also said Father Gerry told her of the grim discovery beneath the trap door on the same night Angelika's body was found by police.

4 - Father Gerry's police statement also contradicted what he said in court. It said he found out from a Sunday newspaper that the body had been found beneath a hatch. But the newspaper, when produced in court, did not say this.

5 - Parishioner Sarah Howie, when she gave evidence, said the priest 'most definitely' knew 'perfectly well' about the hatch.

6 - Yet when quizzed over his 'web of lies' about the trap door by Donald Findlay QC, Father Gerry repeated the same answer over and over: 'I know nothing about the death or the circumstances of Angelika Kluk's death.'

His conduct, especially after 23-year-old Angelika went missing, was under the most vigorous scrutiny.

And his previously unblemished reputation, built up by decades of work in communities across Glasgow, had unravelled unceremoniously in the public eye.

But Eleanor Brown, chairwoman of the community council in Ruchill, where Father Gerry was priest for almost a decade in the 1990s, said his work in the community and personal qualities were enough for people to turn a blind eye to anything which may have been going on behind the scenes.

Father Gerry provided free accommodation for families of patients travelling to a pioneering HIV unit at the former Ruchill Hospital.

And he worked across the community bringing churches together and set up support groups for people with Aids and drug or alcohol problems.

As he did at Anderston, he tore out a few rows of benches from the back of the church and replaced them with sofas.

Mrs Brown said: "He also didn't see the point of having all the pews in church if it wasn't full. So he made an area for people to sit and relax and talk.

"Some people didn't like the way he did things, of course - taking the pews out, for example."

In the early 1990s, Father Gerry's unorthodox methods began to draw attention from beyond the parish, and despite a growing reputation as a priest who may not toe the line drawn by diocesan heads, he was allowed free reign at Ruchill, and later Anderston.

'Church must have known'

FATHER Gerry Nugent's battle with his demons - women and alcohol - has been going on for many years.

But they were masked by his down-to-earth nature, perpetual cheeriness and popularity gained by decades of work for good causes.

The Dublin-born churchman had always been known as an unconventional priest in the parishes he served since his ordination in 1967 - almost exclusively in deprived areas of Glasgow.

He started out in Dumbarton in the late 60s, before moving to Glasgow, taking on duties at St Thomas's in Riddrie in 1974, moving to St Robert's in Pollok in 1979, St Teresa's in Possilpark in 1984, and St Philomena's in Provanmill in the late 1980s.

The first parish where he was in sole charge was Our Lady of the Assumption in Ruchill, which he joined in 1989.

It was here in north Glasgow that Father Gerry's "maverick" way of spreading the gospel - and his womanising streak which apparently surfaced years later with Angelika, 40 years his junior - first came to the fore.

Like at St Patrick's, there were rumours in Ruchill that the priest was romantically involved with some of his congregation.

Eleanor Brown, chairman of Ruchill community councillor for almost 25 years, was a parishioner.

She said: "He had personality and charisma - and he was the parish priest. Some people will always want what is unobtainable. In a community you always look up to figures like the doctor and the priest.

"Gerry had that untouchable quality. Women did like him, and he maybe did get too close sometimes. There was one woman in particular, but I'm not sure what if anything actually happened."

Another parishioner from the time said: "He was drinking a lot. There were all these rumours about him and women. It wasn't good. He was clearly torn between the lives he was leading."

A mum in her 30s, from the flats on Shaftsbury Street, behind the church, said: "The older women thought he was great, because he's so charming. It was the younger women that didn't feel comfortable around him. He was really touchy-feely. He would put his arm around you for no reason.

"But you'd just shrug it off because, you know, it was Father Gerry, and he was harmless. It was like he was in the wrong job."

Another parishioner in her 30s said: "The church must have known what he was like, and what was going on. If so many people around here knew, it must have known too."

Speaking to the Evening Times in 1991, he said: "The style of the priesthood is changing and I think it's much more open to a lot of ideas.

"My spirituality is my pastoral work, and so welcoming the community into my home is just as important to me as sitting in church saying my prayers.

"I'm not trying to be gimmicky or be different for the sake of being different. I don't think you can work the parish today as it was worked years ago, with the orders coming from the top."

Father Gerry took over Our Lady of the Assumption in Ruchill church in 1989

Mrs Brown said: "He never turned anybody away for baptisms or marriages. It didn't matter what your status was - if they had been married before, for example, or it was a mixed denomination wedding.

"He just wanted to include people. He never judged them - he always wanted to help.

"He was a very modern priest - perhaps too modern for his time.

"He opened his door to Peter Tobin. He was a perfect example. He took him in, and look how he was repaid."

However, behind the scenes Father Gerry was becoming a heavy drinker during his time at Ruchill.

In court, he said it was the mid-1990s when he became an alcoholic.

When he moved to St Patrick's in Anderston in 1998 - it's normal for priests to move around parishes - he quickly built a similar reputation to his time at Ruchill.

In 2004 and 2005 he was one of the faces of the city council's anti-prejudice poster campaign, which used the slogan 'Glasgow - We're every kind of people'.

But away from the public eye, Father Gerry's life had began to spiral out of control.

After spending several years with a support group to tackle his alcoholism, the illness returned in summer of 2005.

The relapse coincided with him meeting, giving shelter to, and - he claims - sleeping with Angelika Kluk.

In court, Father Gerry denied the return of his drink problem had anything to do with meeting Angelika. But few people who know the priest believe his lust for the student was not a factor.

He told the court he felt "guilty, ashamed, and disgusted" with himself for having sex with Angelika. Her sister, Aneta, who lived and worked in Glasgow, still maintains the priest was lying.

Aneta told of Father Gerry's "irrational" behaviour, especially when drinking, and regular angry outbursts in private.

Despite his serious personal problems, Father Gerry's fervent community work continued.

Just days before Angelika's murder, he hit the headlines after he allowed a Pakistani couple facing deportation to seek "sanctuary" in the chapel house after their asylum application was rejected by the Home Office.

But days later, with the disappearance of Angelika, and the subsequent discovery of her body in the church, Father Gerry's world had collapsed.

Believed to be living alone at a flat in Glasgow, his future within the church is uncertain.

He is known to be receiving treatment for his drink problem, asthma and suspected multiple sclerosis.

'Admiration' and support for priest

Father Robert Hill, 52, from St Charles' church in Kelvinside, Glasgow, took Father Gerry in when he left St Patrick's.

He says there will be no shortage of support for Father Gerry ... despite the claims which emerged during the Tobin trial.

He said: "Gerry was ordered by police to leave the chapel house, so he was effectively homeless. He was meant to be staying here for a short period of time, but in the end he was here until Christmas."

Father Hill said his fellow clergymen would be rallying round the priest.

He said: "Everybody is still full of admiration for what he gave of himself for others. There's so much good that he's done and no matter what has come out during the trial, that can't undo the tremendous goodness.

"I think some people were taken aback. But I haven't heard anybody whose fundamental opinion of Father Gerry has changed.

"The initial stages of the trial were such that we forgot what the real issue was. It looked as if Father Gerry was on trial.

"People will always testify to what Father Gerry has done to help them. He has helped so many people, and nothing should be allowed to take away from that. There is certainly not going to be any shortage of support for him."

Contact: chris.musson@eveningtimes.co.uk