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	Priest Accused of Indecent Assault: Verdict Expected By George Jackson Belfast Telegraph [Northern Ireland] May 24, 2007 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2578870.ece A verdict is due today correct in the trial of a Co Londonderry priest who denies four charges of indecently assaulting a schoolgirl. Fr Patrick Joseph Crilly (63) from Tobermore Road, Desertmartin, denies committing the offences in the Derry diocesan pastoral centre between September 1977 and November 1980, starting when the 15-year-old girl came to him for counselling about becoming a nun. Evidence in the seven-day trial ended yesterday when, in his second day in the witness box, Fr Crilly told prosecution barrister Geoffrey Millar QC that when he was first informed of the allegations by Fr John Farren on November 5, 2005, he contacted the investigating police officer. "I wanted to speak to the police. I contacted them after I was made aware of the allegations made against me," he told the jury at Derry's Crown Court. Asked if he was "still active" as parish priest of Desertmartin when he met Fr Farren, the defendant replied "no". He also denied the series of allegations made against him. When the prosecuting barrister put it to the defendant that he "wanted to keep dark and secret that which was going on in the pastoral centre between you", Fr Crilly replied: "That is not true." Mr Millar put it to the defendant that "throughout this period you used and abused your position of trust and as a minister of religion and as a man towards a vulnerable girl and you abused her in the manner in which she has described." Fr Crilly replied: "I would disagree with that."
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