Judge Adjourns Assault Case against Priest

By George Jackson
Irish Times
January 5, 2012

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2012/0105/1224309832244.html

A DISTRICT judge yesterday adjourned for two weeks the court appearance of a 65-year-old priest accused of committing a number of indecent assault offences against a female.

Fr Eugene Boland, a native of Moville in Co Donegal, whose address was given as the Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, is alleged to have committed the offences between June 1990 and June 1992.

A preliminary enquiry hearing for Fr Boland, who since his ordination in 1973 has served in parishes on both sides of the Border in the Derry diocese, was listed for the Magistrate's Court in Derry yesterday.

Present for the hearing was a prosecution barrister, the investigating police officer as well as the complainant.

The defendant was not in court.

However, when the case was called by the court clerk, defence solicitor Kevin McGuigan told District Judge Barney McElholm that "the defendant is not in a position to proceed and I am seeking an adjournment for two weeks".

There was no prosecution objection and the case was adjourned until January 18th.

In August 2010 Fr Boland was given administrative leave from his duties as a parish priest because of an investigation into an issue relating to the safeguarding of a child.