WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER — A prosecution witness testified today about a conversation she had in late 2010 with the woman who has accused the Rev. Charles Michael Abdelahad of physically abusing and sexually assaulting her during counseling sessions.
Mary Ann Kourey, a member of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral on Anna Street and the church’s former school director, said the woman approached her on a Sunday morning at the church in the fall of 2010 and asked to speak with her privately.
During the discussion that followed in Rev. Abdelahad’s office, the crying woman related to her that she had been beaten by Rev. Abdelahad during counseling sessions aimed at treating the woman’s eating disorder, according to Ms. Kourey.
Ms. Kourey testified that the woman also told her the priest, now on a leave of absence from his role as pastor, had bitten her, pulled her hair, struck her head against a wall and forced her to sit naked on his office floor “for obedience reasons.”
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