Teenager Denies 'Coming on To' Priest She Claims Sexually Assaulted Her

By Claire Armstrong
Telegraph & Argus
March 13, 2013

http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/local/localbrad/10283935.Defence_accuses_girl__17__of_kissing_parish_priest_William_Finnegan/?ref=nt

William Finnegan

A teenage girl has denied “coming on to” a Roman Catholic priest who is accused of sexually assaulting her. William Finnegan, 59, is standing trial at Bradford Crown Court accused of taking hold of the girl and forcefully kissing her when she was 17.

Finnegan, now of Acacia Close, Castleford, denies the charge.

The alleged assault happened on Easter Sunday last year, while Finnegan was parish priest at St Clare’s RC Church in Fagley, Bradford.

The teenager, now 18 and who cannot be identified, appeared in the witness box yesterday. Her evidence was given through a video interview with police, and she was then asked further questions by barristers in court.

On the video, she described how Finnegan would often hug her or tell her he liked her hair or an outfit she was wearing.

She said on the Easter Sunday, he put one hand behind her head and the other on her bottom, before kissing her “forcefully”.

She said: “His eyes were closed, his mouth was open. His head was just going forward for it. His lips were going quite forcefully. I had my eyes open for the whole thing. I didn’t want it to be passionate so I was just waiting for it to end.”

She said as a priest he “shouldn’t be feeling this way” and she ended up wondering if she had provoked him. She said: “I didn’t see this reaction coming so I thought maybe I did something. Maybe one day I wore something too provocative or maybe I said something or maybe I should have stopped the hugs.”

Finnegan’s barrister Jeremy Hill-Baker cross-examined the girl, who said she had instantly frozen and used her hands to push herself back.

Mr Hill-Baker: “You put your hands around his waist and you kissed him, didn’t you?”

The girl: “Why would I do that? Because I didn’t.”

Mr Hill-Baker: “Well, that’s what happened, because you had a soft spot for him.”

The girl: “That’s not what happened at all.”

Mr Hill-Baker: “And he pushed you away, saying, ‘I’m not having that’.”

The girl: “That didn’t happen.”

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Roger Thomas QC, said it was the defence’s case that she had “come on to him” and asked what she would say in response to that.

The girl told the jury: “I would never, ever come on to him, ever. I didn’t feel that way about him.”

The trial continues.