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	God Help You in Afterlife, 'Abuse' Priest Told Fleetwood Today February 20, 2008 http://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/latest-north-west-news/God-help-you-in-afterlife.3793990.jp A witness giving evidence against a Bury priest accused of sexually abusing him more than 15 years ago has attacked him during emotional evidence, saying: "God help you in the afterlife". John McCollough, 63, who now lives in Leigh-on-Sea, near Southend, is charged with indecently assaulting two parishioners during his time as minister at the Holy Trinity Church in Bury. His first alleged victim, a 29-year-old man who cannot be named for legal reasons, has made two emotional outbursts at Bolton Crown Court. The man broke down in tears as he took the oath before the jury. He turned to the priest and said: "Why, why, that's all I want to know, why? "You don't know what you've done to me and how much I've lost, you don't, and you can just stand there and look at me like that." The man has alleged he was abused by the priest on numerous occasions in the vicarage from the age of about 11 until he was 14. The man's second outburst came when prosecutor Maurice Greene asked him to recount the first time he recalled being indecently assaulted. The alleged victim again turned to the priest and said: "You sat me on your knee, didn't you." He swore and went on to say: "People like you should not even be in a church... You're a man of the cloth, God help you in the afterlife." The witness told the jury of five women and seven men that he was asked to sit on the "paralytic" defendant's knee after a social outing for a cuddle and the priest then touched him.
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