Alleged Victims of Catholic Priest Accused of Sexually Abusing Girls "All Gave Similar Accounts', Court Hears
By Nick Statham
The alleged victims of a Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing nine young girls over four decades all gave similar accounts of his behaviour a court has heard. Canon Mortimer Stanley, 84, who is also accused of indecently assaulting an altar boy, was parish priest at St Vincent De Paul RC Church, in Norden from 1977 to 2002. He denies 19 counts of indecent assault said to have been committed during that time. Several of the female complainants - all pupils at neighbouring St Vincent’s RC Primary School during Stanley’s ministry - described how they would sit on his knee while he would ‘bounce them up and down’. The most serious allegations include him kissing and sexually assaulting the alleged victims. A jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard how youngsters would often go to the presbytery to see if Stanley needed help with any jobs. He admitted letting children into his house if they called round as that was his ‘character’.
The jury also heard of an alleged incident when one of the girls was playing in the school gym with other children after Stanley let them in as a treat for helping him out. He then beckoned her over, sat her on his knee and ‘jiggled her’ on his lap. The victim says she didn’t fully understand what was happening at the time, but now realises he was sexually aroused. Another girl told how she had helped move some boxes at the presbytery with other children. But as the group went to leave she was called back by Stanley who asked her to straddle him, while he bounced her against his groin. Andrew Mackintosh, prosecuting, said: “I suggest to you that you did get aroused having the girls on your knee. “You got an erection and rather than stop and tell them to get off, you pulled them towards you and bounced against them.” Stanley admitted girls had sat astride him, but not as a way for him to ‘gain sexual pleasure’. He said: “That would be an invitation to do something very, very wrong and go totally against my conscience. “I would never do that to a child to gain my own personal gratification, it would be wrong of me.” Asked whether he had ever become aroused while a child was on his knee he said: “I certainly would not set out to create that situation with a child or anyone else but it could’ve happened unintentionally with no sexual motive.”
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