A parish priest from the Derry diocese has gone on trial at the city’s Crown Court charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl 20 years ago.Fr Eugene Boland (66), originally from Moville, Co Donegal, and who served as a priest on both sides of the Border in the diocese, denies five charges of indecently assaulting the complainant between June 1990 and June 1992.
Fr Boland, Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, is alleged to have committed the offences at the White Chapel parochial house in the Galliagh area of Derry, where the complainant worked on a voluntary basis.
Opening the prosecution case to the jury of eight women and four men, barrister Russell Connell said when the allegations were put to Fr Boland in Omagh police station in April 2010, he denied all of the offences.
When interviewed by Mary McCafferty, the designated officer in the Derry diocese, Fr Boland is alleged to have told Mrs McCafferty he was “a touchy feely kind of person”.
The trial continues.