Beaten by a Priest, Inside Edition, November 6, 2007

Beaten by a Priest

Inside Edition
November 6, 2007

http://www.insideedition.com/ourstories/inside_stories/story.aspx?storyid=1040

Caller: Help me!

911: This is the Fire department. What happened? Did you fall?

Caller: No, I got beaten up.

911: You got beaten up. Okay.

Caller: Horribly my hair has been pulled out of my head.

It was a horrific 911 call from a distraught woman who had just been brutally attacked by a man she thought she could trust...a Catholic priest.

Michaelina Bellamy talks with INSIDE EDITION about the savage attack suffered at the hands of her priest.

Michaelina Bellamy tells INSIDE EDITION, "All I (could) think was God I'm going to die because I was begging him the whole time please, please..." Bellamy, a former Las Vegas show girl and cabaret singer, is speaking out about the vicious beating she suffered at the hand of Father George Chaanine. She says he stalked her, propositioned her and when she rebuffed his advances, he tried to kill her.

As Michaelina Bellamy thinks back to the attack, she remembers screaming at the top of her lungs, asking anyone for help as her assailant continued to slug her in the face.

The attack happened at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church back in January. Bellamy says she was caught completely off guard when she was hit on the back of her head at least three times. When she was finally able to turn and face her attacker she was stunned to discover it was none other than Fr. George Chaanine.

Bellamy was working at the church as a choir director and events planner, and says Chaanine, her boss, developed an unhealthy crush on her. "He came up to me and put his hands on me." Bellamy says the priest then told her she had a very beautiful voice.

Fr. Chaanine invited her to lunch and on daytrips to the Grand Canyon. Bellamy says she went along because she never imagined that a priest would want to harm her. But soon, she says, his motives became clear. "He wanted to talk to me about his life and the women he's had." It was then that Michaelina Bellamy thought the situation was a little strange.

Michaelina Bellamy says she made it clear that she wasn't interested. Then late one afternoon as she worked alone in her office, the priest attacked. "I'm being pulled down the hallway screaming, 'Help me! Help me! Help me! Somebody help me!'"

In court, Bellamy described the attack to a judge. She claims she is the victim of an alleged sexual assault, saying, "He put his hands underneath my shirt, grabbed my breasts and I'm just fighting him and hitting him, pushing him back."

Police photos show the brutality of the beating. Bellamy's head had split open where the priest hit her several times with a full bottle of wine. She is convinced that Fr. Chaanine wanted to rape and kill her.

After Bellamy fought off her attacker, the priest fled. Eight days later, he was captured near Phoenix, Arizona, his car loaded with supplies. Father George Chaanine was charged with multiple counts of battery and sexual assault, but was offered a deal, pleading guilty to one count of battery. In court, Fr. Chaanine claimed he was in love with Michaelina and apologized for attacking her. But, his victim is not yet ready to forgive. "He's filthy, dirty...for him to put his hands on me is filthy...He can go to hell," says an angry Bellamy.

Fr. Chaanine was sentenced to five to ten years in prison for the attack.

Bellamy says she is slowly picking up the pieces of her life, devastated by her betrayal at the hands of a man who should have been an inspiration but who instead turned out to be her tormentor.