NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A former Belfast priest has told a jury he “totally denied” allegations that he sexually abused a young female parishioner in the 1980s.
Peter Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, County Down, is a former priest at St Matthew’s Catholic Church in east Belfast.
He is accused of sexually assaulting the girl in the church’s parochial house from July 1982 to August 1987.
The 71-year denies the seven charges against him.
He has been charged with six counts of indecently assaulting the girl, and a further charge of gross indecency with a child.
Giving evidence at his trial, Fr Donnelly told the jury he served at St Matthew’s in east Belfast from 1983 until 1988. The allegation of abuse was made in September 2010 and at that time, Fr Donnelly was a parish priest in south Down.
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