AUSTRALIA
The Canberra Times
March 30, 2015
Michael Inman
Courts reporter for The Canberra Times.
A former Catholic priest accused of molesting a young girl admitted to diocese officials that he had touched her bottom, a court has been told.
But Father Edward Evans, 85, told them it was not sexual and he did not know it was a crime.
Father Evans allegedly told the officials he knew it had been wrong but thought, after 20 years, all had been forgiven and forgotten.
Evans has pleaded not guilty in the ACT Supreme Court to allegations that he abused the girl at his home on five occasions and at Cooleman Court on another occasion in the 1990s.
The Crown alleges the priest put his hands down the girl’s pants and grabbed her bottom three times, and digitally penetrated her twice in his kitchen.
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