Standing in the dock of Craigavon Crown Court, Rev. Adrian McLaughlin had a stunned look on his face as the jury foreperson announced the 10-2 majority verdict that the 50-year-old was guilty of fraud by abuse of position.
The jury of ten men and two women had deliberated for just over six hours over the course of two days before declaring the minister was guilty of breaking the eighth commandment - thou shalt not steal.
The particulars of the offence outline that while Rev. McLaughlin was occupying a position of trust at St. Colman’s Parish Church in Dunmurry he “abused that position in that, without approval or authority from the treasurer or Church Vestry, you wrote a cheque for £10,000 from the church bank account” which he then made payable to himself.
The jury heard that while Rev. McLaughlin claimed the money was to reimburse him for money he spent on the “beautification and betterment” of St. Colman’s parish, he tried to cover up his fraud by filling in the cheque stub as payable to “NI Organs Ltd.”
Describing how he, “may well have giveth but he also certainly taketh away,” prosecuting counsel Joseph Murphy had highlighted to the jury that as rector, the defendant knew full well there was no treasurer in the church at the time and with hundreds of thousands of pounds going through a building fund to rebuild the church after it was decimated in a fire, “he thought sure who is going to notice a measly £10,000?”
The jury had found him unanimously guilty of a similar offence of fraud by abuse of position by taking a £1,000 donation from a grieving widow.
The minister was however found unanimously not guilty of four further fraud offences relating to other donations, funeral collections and money obtained through a weekly Slimming World class.
Following the jury’s verdict Judge Patrick Lynch KC thanked them and advised them that he would be passing sentence once pre-sentence reports had been prepared.
While Rev. McLaughlin, from Church Avenue in Dunmurry, was freed on bail until 6 September, Judge Lynch warned him his release “is no indication of what the ultimate sentence of the court will be.”
During the course of the six day trial, the jury heard how Rev. McLaughlin was appointed as rector for St. Colman’s Church of Ireland parish in Dunmurry in 2014 and that after the church was decimated in a fire in January 2016, “much of the governance” of the parish and it’s rebuild was down to the rector and the “select vestry.”
The jury also heard as there was no treasurer in place for a few months from August 2016, cheques had to have two signatures.
John Williams, who was a member of the select vestry committee, gave evidence the defendant approached him after a Sunday service and asked him to sign a £10,000 cheque but to leave the payee line blank.
According to Mr Williams, the defendant told him he needed the cheque to make sure the church did not miss out on a “great bargain” of an organ he had found but that he explained he was not 100% sure of the church’s name so leave the page line blank and he would fill it in.
Six days later however Rev. McLaughlin lodged that £10,000 cheque into his own account, filling in the cheque stub as paying NI Organs Ltd.
The fraud was only uncovered, the jury heard, towards the end of 2018 when with the minister and his then wife going through an acrimonious marriage split, concerns were raised about his conduct and the church treasurer asked the bank for a copy of the cheque.
Interviewed by police, Rev. McLaughlin initially claimed it had been agreed at a vestry meeting that he should be reimbursed for money he had spent on such things as an organ, the gardens, the garage and a Sunday school hut but when it was put to him there was no such discussion recorded in the minutes, he claimed there had been an informal agreement with Mr Williams and his wife Lynn who would become church treasurer.
Giving evidence on his own behalf the minister claimed the decision had been made at a dinner party at the Williams’ house which turned into an “ad hoc vestry meetings.”
Labelling all but one prosecution witness as liars, Rev. McLaughlin blamed his “ex wife and her lovers..plural” for charges being laid against him.
Taking the witness box where he gave sometimes tearful evidence, the minister said their evidence was “nefarious lies” in a campaign orchestrated by his ex and former friends in the church who had sided with her.
“She wanted to get me a [criminal] record so that I would lose the children,” the minister claimed, “she has now tried nine times to get me a very severe criminal record including false gun offences.”
In relation to count two, the jury heard evidence from Mrs Elizabeth Fletcher that following the death of her husband, she had attended church one Sunday morning and gave a cheque for £1,000 to Rev McLaughlin with the payee line blank.
She testified that the cheque was a donation for the church and as she did not know how the cheque would be used she had left the payee line blank of her own volition.
The minister claimed he told Mrs Fletcher he would use the money to reimburse himself for two antique, ornate candle sticks he had purchased from a shop in Saintfield for £800, further claiming she was “more than happy with that.”
He outlined to the jury how he had to withdraw extra cash from an ATM to pay for them and that his now ex-wife was with him at the time.
Mrs Fletcher told the jury however there had been “no such conversation” that Sunday morning and her reverend had told her he “had no idea what he was going to do with the money.”
His ex-wife Dr. Christine Burns also gave evidence that she had no recollection of ever being in a Saintfield antique shop with her then husband.
As Mr Murphy highlighted in his closing speech Mrs Fletcher “was just a widow who wanted to make a donation but he sullied that gesture” to direct the £1,000 to himself and “use it as his own.”