Press TV
December 18, 2011
www.presstv.ir/detail/216327.html
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Northern Ireland has been rocked with another church scandal after a former priest was found guilty of 23 sex abuse charges against three men.
Trial judge Patrick Lynch found James Donaphy from Lady Wallace Drive in Lisburn guilty of indecent assaults and attempted sex attacks on three victims between June 1983 and December 2000,
Donaphy was charged on 26 cases but the jury could not reach a verdict on two while the ex-priest was acquitted of one charge of common assault.
The court decided that the priest has victimized three people -- Father Patrick McCafferty, an altar boy James Doherty and a former trainee priest.
His charges included indecent assault and serious sexual assault.
Lynch said Donaphy faces an "inevitable" jail term "of some length."
The Diocese of Down and Connor where Donaphy was a priest until 2004 has offered apologies over the scandal.
"[The diocese offers] sincere and unequivocal apologies to all those who have suffered abuse by clergy and religious," the Down and Connor catholic church officials said in a statement.
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