BishopAccountability.org
	Priest Dismisses Sexual Abuse Allegations Fleetwood Weekly News February 26, 2008 http://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/latest-north-west-news/Priest-dismisses-sexual-abuse-allegations.3813153.jp A priest has dismissed allegations he sexually abused a boy in his care, when he was a minister in Greater Manchester, while visiting the house of a judge. Father John McCollough, 63, denies claims he preyed on youngsters, while he was the minister at Holy Trinity Church in Bury, in the 1990s. One alleged victim, a heroin addict since the age of 14, claimed to have been attacked while on trips to Lourdes and London with the priest. Giving evidence from the witness box at Bolton Crown Court, McCollough agreed the two had stayed with Deborah Champion, a barrister, from Putney, London, on one visit in May 1990. McCollough said the barrister's daughter, lodger and other guests were in the house when the alleged abuse happened. After their one-night stay at the house of Ms Champion, who is also a serving judge, the boy served mass for the Bishop of London the next day. "Was there any abuse there?" Keith Harrison, defending, asked the witness. "No," he replied. The alleged victim, now aged 29, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he was abused by the priest on numerous occasions in the vicarage from the age of about 11 until he was 14. McCollough, of Lymington Avenue, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, denies 11 charges of indecent assault and one charge of gross indecency between 1986 and 1992.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.