Donegal Born Priest in Court on Indecent Assault Charge

Donegal Democrat
June 19, 2012

http://www.donegaldemocrat.ie/news/local/donegal-born-priest-in-court-on-indecent-assault-charge-1-3966179

Father Boland arriving at Derry Court yesterday. (1906PG91)

A Moville born priest told a woman who claims she was indecently assaulted by him as a teenage girl that it was only when he came to Derry and saw good looking women that he realised it was ‘too late’ for him.

The woman told a Derry Crown Court jury yesterday she felt “totally betrayed” by the alleged actions of the priest.

The woman who cannot be identified was giving evidence at the trial of 66-year-old Fr. Eugene Boland.

Boland, whose address was given on court papers as Parochial House, Killyclogher Road, Omagh, denies five charges of indecent assault between June 28, 1990 and June 30, 1992.

It is alleged the abuse took place in the parochial house of the White Chapel, Galliagh when the complainant was aged around 14-years-old.

Giving evidence to a Derry Crown Court jury of four men and eight women, the complainant alleged Boland phoned her and asked her to help out in the parochial house when she was a teen. She said it was her job to answer the phones and take messages. The complainant told the jury she became friends with Boland and he would tell her about his life growing up in Moville and when he went to train to be a priest.

She claims during one of these conversations, the priest said it was only after he was ordained and he came to Derry that he saw good looking women and then it was “too late”. The jury also heard an allegation that Boland had told the teen if he was ten years younger and she was ten years older “you would definitely be my type of woman”.

She said she didn’t know what way to take the comment as she thought priests were “special” and “didn’t think like that”. The woman claimed the priest touched her inappropriately while they were looking through a book of church laws, by putting his hand underneath her clothes and rubbing her back.

She alleged she was “numb, frozen with shock and wanted to squeal and run out of the house” but was afraid to because “I didn’t know what to do or who to tell because back then priests were so well-respected”.

The trial continues.