An Irish priest dubbed “a celebrity in the playground” sexually abused nine young girls over four decades in Rochdale, a court has heard.

Many of the schoolchildren were said not to have complained at the time about Father Mortimer Stanley, originally from Limerick, because of the “very high regard” in which he was held by parishioners and teachers.

The priest, now 84, allegedly targeted his “special girls” in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where he would sit them on his knee and indecently assault them in various ways.

His alleged victims,