By Staff Copy
Lancashire Evening Post
August 29, 2007
http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Jailed-priest-tried-to-kiss.3154672.jp
United Kingdom — A victim of serial paedophile priest Fr Edmund Cotter has spoken to the Lancashire Evening Post for the first time about how he targeted youngsters following Confession.
The mother-of-two's frank interview comes as victims prepare legal action against the Roman Catholic Church for the clergyman's catalogue of indecent assaults.
Cotter, 60, was jailed for five years two months for 13 counts of indecent assault on children aged between seven and 11 during his ministry at St Anthony's Church in Cadley Causeway, Fulwood, Preston, in the 1970s and 1980s.
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| Cotter was jailed for 13 counts of indecent assault on children |
And the 43-year-old victim, from Fulwood, fears there could be more victims who have not come forward.
She said: "Children were afraid of him because he could be quite aggressive. We used to make it a plan to try to avoid him.
"Sex abuse was not talked about then and we were so young we didn't realise it was that.We talked about it amongst ourselves. It became a bit of a dark joke – children would say "did you get Cottered?"
The woman said the church youth group members worked in a Catholic nursing home
on Saturday mornings, then spent time at the church in the afternoon where Fr Cotter told them to clean chalices while he took Confession.
She added: "After that he would come out and play hide and seek.
"I was only 10. He would pull my head up and put his mouth over mine then try to force his tongue in. I just used to squeeze my mouth closed.
"He used to tickle you under your arm and then move to the front. It's only now you realise what he was up to."
The woman said the incident had destroyed her faith.
She added: "I was not going to pursue it until I read in the Evening Post that the church had been warned about him. It made me very angry."
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