Drink and Vice Girls..now Angelika Priest Just Dodges Jail
By Gordon Mcilwraith
Glasgow Daily Record [Scotland]
May 9, 2007
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_headline=the-final-shame&method=full&objectid=19067147&siteid=66633-name_page.html
Disgraced priest Father Gerry Nugent was shamed in court again yesterday.
Alcoholic Father Gerry had already admitted having sex with several women, including murder victim Angelika Kluk.
Yesterday he narrowly avoided a jail sentence for contempt but was put on probation and given 100 hours of community service.
A judge was told the priest, 63, had seen his world collapse around him after Polish student Angelika Kluk was murdered in his church last September.
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And it was claimed he was under considerable stress when he gave evidence at the trial of sex monster Peter Tobin, 60.
During cross-examination, Tobin's QC Donald Findlay tried to determine when the priest first discovered that Angelika's body had been found under the floorboards.
But Nugent kept saying: "I can't remember."
Findlay produced a statement by parishioner Geraldine McGowan in which she told of Nugent's comments after the grim find under the church floor.
Findlay said: "Do you want me to go on?"
Nugent replied: "Yes I do" and was confronted with Ms McGowan's statement, given just four days after the body was found.
It said: "Father Nugent phoned me yesterday - October 1 - and told me it was definite that Angela had been found. He was absolutely distraught at that time.
"He told me she had been found under a trap door by the confessional."
Findlay asked: "Who is the liar?" Nugent admitted: "I must have said that." Findlay: "You have just lied to this jury and we have demonstrated that."
Nugent: "I was not aware I was lying. If Geraldine said that, I must have said that to her."
The lawyer blasted: "How can you stand there and say, 'I must have said that' when, after umpteen opportunities, you said - on oath - that it was months later you knew about the confessional?"
Yesterday, at the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Menzies found him in contempt.
The priest, who quit his post at St Patrick's, in Anderston, Glasgow, sat in the same dock as Tobin had done during the six-week trial.
He was not wearing a dog collar and was dressed in a dark suit with a pale blue shirt and tie.
Lord Menzies told him that, despite warnings, he had given contradictory answers to questions in a trial which "could hardly have had a higher profile."
He went on: "It is something for which I would normally impose a custodial sentence."
Nugent - who is unlikely to ever work as a priest again-only spoke to confirm that he understood.
His QC, Valerie Stacey, told Lord Menzies: "Father Nugent very much regrets any difficulty that he caused to the court by the way in which he gave evidence.
"He was under immense strain then and has been ever since.
"He didn't come to court with the fixed intention to subvert the course of justice."
Before the trial, he had given 17 statements to the police and advised parishioners to answer detectives' questions.
She continued: "But by the time he came to court, he was extremely stressed and confused by all that had happened.
"He should have said that he was no longer sure what he had said and when he had said it. Father Nugent's life was collapsing around him."
During the trial, the priest claimed to have had sex with Angelika - who had been staying in a St Patrick's church house - three or four times.
He also said he had been sexually intimate with a parishioner.
He said he had found a used condom in Angelika's room and shown it to student Rebecca Dordi, 30, who was also staying at the church house. Nugent then shifted his position, saying he had spoken to Ms Dordi about finding a condom before finally claiming that he couldn't remember telling her.
The final nail in his coffin came when Findlay quizzed him about his claim of having sex with Angelika,23,and when it started.
First of all, he said it had been mutual and something which had just happened between the two of them.
He then appeared to take full responsibility, blaming his own "lustfulness and weakness".
Last night, a Catholic church spokesman said: "Father Nugent must assume responsibility for the quality or otherwise of evidence he gave to the Court.
"New lurid details have emerged about Father Nugent's past, of which we had no prior knowledge."
Last week, Tobin was jailed for a minimum of 21 years for raping and murdering Angelika and hiding her body under the floor.
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