Derry Journal [Northern Ireland]
May 16, 2007
http://www.derrytoday.com/journal-news?articleid=2880097
Teen sought advice on becoming a nun
A senior priest in the diocese of Derry has gone on trial before the city's Crown Court charged with indecently assaulting a teenage girl almost thirty years ago.
Fr. Patrick Joseph Crilly, (63), with an address at Tobermore Road, Desertmartin, Co. Derry, denies four charges of indecently assaulting the girl on dates between September 1977 and November 1980.
The jury of six men and six women were told by prosecution barrister Geoffrey Millar Q.C., that the abuse took place after the school girl, who is now aged forty-five, had been referred to the defendant for counselling as she was thinking of becoming a nun.
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| Derry Court |
At the time of the alleged offences, the defendant was the Director of Vocations in the Derry diocese and the indecent assaults are alleged to have taken place in the diocesan Pastoral Centre at Bishop Street.
The prosecution barrister said the alleged injured party came from a devout Catholic family who held priests in the highest regard. At their initial counselling session, the school girl was "flattered by the attention she was receiving from a man who was a priest."
"What we would say is that these initial acts were the grooming of the injured party for what was to come", the barrister said.
Mr. Millar said during their sessions, the defendant asked the school girl if she knew about the vow of celibacy and also asked her if she knew what married couples did on their wedding night.
"She found the nature of his questioning surprising if not shocking", he said.
The alleged injured party trusted the defendant because he made her feel good and special at a time when she was pouring out her problems to him
"She wondered what was happening but accepted that, as a priest, he would know what was right and wrong and she trusted him because of this", the barrister added.
He said the sexual abuse of the girl in the pastoral centre "became the norm" after which the defendant would leave the girl home. The defendant told her if people asked her what they were doing together, she should tell them she was helping the defendant out with paper work.
What the barrister called "this cycle of abuse" ended in December 1979 or January 1980 when the girl told the defendant she had met a boyfriend.
"She rang the defendant and told him about her friend. He reacted in a very perfunctory manner, putting the 'phone down and she never heard from him again", Mr. Millar said.
The barrister said that in the summer of 1992 the alleged injured party saw the defendant at a bingo night in the Marian Hall in Derry. He said the defendant's presence on the stage "provoked a reaction in
her". She told no-one about the alleged abuse until October 2005.
"She spoke to a counsellor and to the church authorities and was informed that the person to speak to was Fr. John Farren who had been assigned within the church to deal with allegations of this nature. Fr. Farren reported the matter to the police as he was obliged to do and to Bishop Seamus Hegarty and the church authorities", he said.
Mr. Millar said Fr. Farren then met with the defendant in November 2005 at Ardmore parochial house in Derry where he advised the defendant of his legal and canonical rights.
The defendant was interviewed by the police on December 7, 2005 when he attended voluntarily with his solicitor. Mr. Millar said the defendant denied to the police the allegations.
The case, which is expected to last until next Tuesday, continues today when the alleged injured party is due to give her evidence.
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