Man denies alleged abuse at residential home

RTE News
April 29, 2014

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0429/613752-historical-institutional-abuse-inquiry/

The hearing is dealing with claims made by some of the residents of two homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry

A man who served as a priest in the Derry diocese has denied at Northern Ireland's Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry that he abused a young girl at a residential home in Co Derry 30 years ago.

The hearing at Banbridge, Co Down is dealing with claims made by some of the residents of two homes run by the Sisters of Nazareth in Derry.

The brief of the Inquiry is to examine what happened at a number of Northern Ireland residential homes run by the churches and religious denominations, voluntary organisations and the state from 1922 to 1995. 

Up to now the evidence has been about two homes run by the Nazareth Sisters in Derry. 

In recent months the inquiry has heard allegations of physical and sexual abuse from former residents. 

Several witnesses have since contested the evidence. 

At today’s hearing, a man denied allegations a woman had made about him. 

She had claimed that when a child the priest abused her in the Parochial House in Strabane, at a Nazareth-run institution in Derry and later at another home.

The witness described the accounts as untrue. 

He said he was not working in Strabane at the time of the alleged assaults, did not know the person making the allegations and that none of the alleged abuse happened.