Rome meeting for priest and his sex ‘victim’

UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Evening Post

A man who claims to have been sexually abused by a senior priest in Preston came face to face with his attacker in Rome, a court has heard.

Stephen Shield, 53, denies three counts of indecent assault against the man – who had dreams of joining the priesthood – more than two decades ago.

Shield trained in Rome and spent some time at English Martyrs Church in Garstang Road, Preston, where two of the offences were alleged to have taken place.

The man told the court he had been targeted by the priest several years earlier at a retreat centre in the Lake District. Rachel Grimshaw, a friend of the victim, said she had spent time with him at a retreat centre outside Rome.

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