BishopAccountability.org
	Man Found Guilty of False Abuse Claims against Priest By Tomas Mac Ruairi Irish Independent [Ireland] June 8, 2007 http://www.independent.ie/national-news/man-found-guilty-of-false-abuse- claims-against-priest-693280.html A Man has been convicted of falsely alleging he was buggered by a priest he claimed was giving him First Holy Communion tuition more than 25 years ago. Paul Anderson (34) had denied making a false statement that he was abused by the priest. Anderson, of Crumlin Park, Crumlin, Dublin, and formerly of Iveagh Trust Flats, New Bride Street, Dublin, has been remanded in custody for sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. He had denied making a false statement to Det-Gda Brian Kavanagh on June 18, 2003 that acts of indecent assault and buggery were committed on him by the priest in the period February to May 1981. The jury returned its 10-2 majority guilty verdict after it had been deliberating for almost six hours, having spent one night in a hotel. Judge Patricia Ryan exempted the four women and eight men from further jury service for life. Anderson, who was €9,000 in debt and whose car had been repossessed when he made the allegations, denied in evidence he had planned to sue the priest. He denied telling investigating gardai: "I thought of the story first and then the priest's name." Anderson also denied that he said: "Yes, he didn't rape me but he was a cruel man and I just said it" and that the priest "used to frown down on us because he thought everyone who lived in the flats were scum." He detailed sexual abuse to the courts that he claimed was carried out. But evidence showed that neither Anderson nor any other pupil from his school had ever been sent to the priest for Holy Communion prayer tuition. Anderson told the jury that only his evidence was correct. Other witnesses he claimed had got their evidence wrong and were "lying to protect the Church". The jury viewed a video-recording of an interview in which Anderson told gardai his allegations were not true and that he apologised for making them, but then heard him repeat in both his direct evidence and his cross-examination that he had been sexually abused while his mother sat outside the room.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.