The Belfast Telegraph
Thursday, 27 September 2012
A woman who claims she was sexually abused by a priest when she was a child has said she “felt sorry” for him at one stage.
The 40-year-old told Belfast Crown Court that before she reported her alleged abuser to police in September 2010 “I felt sorry for Father Donnelly”.
Catholic priest Peter Donnelly (69) denies six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency alleged to have occurred between July 31, 1983, and August 1, 1987, when his alleged victim was aged between 10 and 14 years old.
Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, was curate at St Matthew’s Church in Belfast’s Bryson Street at the time.
Giving evidence for the second day, the alleged victim told defence QC John Orr the reason she did not go to the police sooner was because she was afraid. “The simple reason being I blamed myself. I thought the blame would come back on me,” she said.
Giving her testimony over a live video-link, the alleged victim told the jury he kissed her with “an open mouth”.
She also claimed he touched her inappropriately in the hallway and dining room of St Matthew’s parochial house in east Belfast.
The alleged victim has further told the court that while she was in Donnelly’s bedroom he forced her to touch him.
Yesterday Mr Orr suggested to her that none of the incidents of abuse had ever happened.
“Whatever the number of them, whatever age you were, I want to suggest to you that nothing of that nature happened at the hands of Fr Donnelly,” said the lawyer.
But the woman refuted his claims, telling the court: “I’m sorry, he done it. You are wrong.”
Mr Orr put it to her that she could not remember details such as what she was wearing, the time of day or year of various incidents.
She replied: “Would you be able to tell the time 30 years ago?”
Although the woman agreed that memory lapses over time “works both ways”, she told the lawyer: “Fr Donnelly knows he done it.”
“You may well have been abused,” said Mr Orr, “but I suggest it most certainly was not at the hands of Fr Donnelly”.
But the witness declared: “It was at the hands of Fr Donnelly and Fr Donnelly knows that.”
She added that she had nothing to gain by telling lies.
“I’m here to try to clear my head and get my life back on track, to try to get closure for this,” she told the jury.
The trial continues.
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‘Memories of priest’s abuse left me suicidal’
The Belfast Telegraph
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
By Paul Higgins
A woman who claims she was abused by a Catholic priest as a child wept as she told a court how she faced the choice of reporting him to the police or killing herself.
The 40-year-old woman told a Belfast Crown Court jury how she “turned to drink” in an effort to block her memories of abuse at the hands of 69-year-old Peter Donnelly.
The alleged abuse, which occurred between July 31, 1983, and August 1, 1987, was reported to police two years ago.
The woman told prosecution lawyer Kate McKay: “I was coming to the end of the road.”
The stark choice facing her, she told the lawyer, was either to report the alleged abuse “or take my own life”.
“I don’t think I could have went any lower,” she said over a TV link-up. “I was thinking that I was the one to blame and I thought that’s what people would have thought of me, and that they would not have believed me.”
Donnelly, from Drumaroad Hill in Castlewellan, was curate at St Matthew’s Church in Bryson Street, Belfast, at the time.
He denies six counts of indecent assault and one of gross indecency, said to have occurred when his alleged victim was aged between 10 and 14 years old.
Yesterday she recounted how she was regularly in the Parochial House, helping out with various duties around the church, when the priest repeatedly kissed her with “an open mouth, putting his tongue in my mouth”.
He also groped her as he rubbed himself against her in the hallway of the Parochial House, she said.
At the time she described how she was “well developed” for her age compared to her friends, and that at times Donnelly told her she was a “lovely girl”.
The alleged victim said she could remember one occasion when Donnelly had shepherded her into the dining room at the Parochial House and was groping her, again while allegedly rubbing himself against her and making “moaning noises”.
She told the court that on another occasion Donnelly led her to an upstairs bedroom where he groped her, before taking her hand to make her touch him.
She claimed Donnelly told her to come back to the Parochial House some night so they could watch a video.
The alleged abuse ended when Donnelly was moved to a different parish, she said.
The case continues.