Former Catholic Priest to Go to Trial on Historic Abuse Claims

Stuff
October 5, 2015

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/72735229/former-catholic-priest-to-go-to-trial-on-historic-abuse-claims.html

Peter Joseph Hercock, 71, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, five of indecent assault of girls under 16, assault on a child and burglary.

A former Catholic priest who worked at a Nelson school and Lower Hutt's Sacred Heart College is to go to trial on sex charges next year.

Nelson man Peter Joseph Hercock, 71, has pleaded not guilty to two charges of rape, five of indecent assault of girls under 16, assault on a child and burglary.

All the charges relate to alleged offending in Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata in the 1970s and 1980s, most while he was a chaplain at the single-sex girls' school.

Wellington District Court judge Bruce Davidson on Tuesday remanded him on bail until next month for a preliminary hearing day and set down a trial for May next year.

Hercock left the priesthood in 1981.