MUM Said "Rubbish" to Abuse Claims: Court

9 News
October 17, 2013

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/10/17/13/46/mum-said-rubbish-to-abuse-claims-court

A woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a Sydney priest says there was no point telling anyone because they wouldn't have believed her.

The woman, who says she was indecently assaulted by Finian Egan in the late 1980s, gave evidence in his trial on Thursday.

She told the court that Egan would usually touch or rub her breasts when he hugged her.

On one occasion when he saw her hug her boyfriend he became angry.

She said he told her into a room, sat her on his lap and rubbed and touched her legs and thighs and told her the boy wasn't good enough for her.

"I was disgusted with him," she told Downing Centre District Court.

"What was the point (of telling anyone) no one would believe me."

The woman said at one point she told her religious mother but her mother told her what she was saying was "rubbish".

Many years later the woman said she called up the church to speak to another priest about baptising her son.

But Egan picked up the phone and told her "we don't baptise bastards here" after finding out she was not married.

Egan, 78, is facing eight counts of indecent assault and one count of rape relating to three girls aged between 10 and 17, between 1961 and 1987.

The trial before Judge Robyn Tupman continues.