Belfast Priest Goes on Trial over Alleged Abuse in 1980s

RTE News
September 24, 2012

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0924/belfast-priest-trial.html

A Catholic priest has gone on trial in Belfast accused of sexually abusing a young girl almost 30 years ago.

Peter Donnelly, 69, from Castlewellan in Co Down, was a curate at St Matthew's Church in Belfast.

He denies six charges of indecent assault and one of gross indecency alleged to have occurred between July 1983 and August 1987.

The prosecution said the offences came to light in September 2010 when the now 40-year-old woman reported to police how she was abused from the age of ten until she was 14.

When he was arrested by police and interviewed, Fr Donnelly claimed he could not remember the girl or her family and denied that he had in any way abused the girl.