Prosecution Witness Testifies Woman Said Priest Beat Her

By Gary V. Murray
Telegram & Gazette
May 3, 2012

http://www.telegram.com/article/20120502/NEWS/120509815/1246

A prosecution witness testified today about a conversation she had in late 2010 with the woman who has accused the Rev. Charles Michael Abdelahad of physically abusing and sexually assaulting her during counseling sessions.

Mary Ann Kourey, a member of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral on Anna Street and the church’s former school director, said the woman approached her on a Sunday morning at the church in the fall of 2010 and asked to speak with her privately.

During the discussion that followed in Rev. Abdelahad’s office, the crying woman related to her that she had been beaten by Rev. Abdelahad during counseling sessions aimed at treating the woman’s eating disorder, according to Ms. Kourey.

Ms. Kourey testified that the woman also told her the priest, now on a leave of absence from his role as pastor, had bitten her, pulled her hair, struck her head against a wall and forced her to sit naked on his office floor “for obedience reasons.”

Ms. Kourey said the woman further told her that she had asked Rev. Abdelahad to make love to her and that the priest had said no. She testified that Rev. Abdelahad’s accuser also mentioned that the priest had tried to trigger what he believed were repressed memories of past sexual abuse during the three years of counseling sessions by fondling her breasts and kissing her.

Ms. Kourey, a nurse, said she told the woman she had no choice but to report her allegations to church authorities.

“She said, ‘I’m begging you not to. Please do not tell anyone,’?” Ms. Kourey testified.

Rev. Abdelahad, 55, of 14 Bryant Ave., Shrewsbury, is on trial in Central District Court on charges of indecent assault and battery, five counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and four counts of assault and battery. Judge Andrew M. D’Angelo is presiding over the jury-waived trial.

The alleged victim said during two days of testimony that she was physically and sexually assaulted by the man she called “Father Michael” during counseling sessions that began in 2007.

The woman said Rev. Abdelahad believed she had been sexually abused by her father as a child, and that her eating disorder was a manifestation of her anger over the abuse. She said the priest also believed she was suffering from dissociative identity disorder and had alter egos.

Under cross-examination by Rev. Abdelahad’s lawyer, James G. Reardon Jr., the woman was questioned at length about her relationship with the priest and scores of email and text communications between the two.

In one communication, the woman wrote, “I love you and I miss you.”

When asked by M. Reardon whether she was in love with Rev. Abdelahad, the woman replied, “I was not in love with him. I loved him.”