"Ghost" Life of Priest Facing Extradition on 16 Sex Charges

By Zena Hawley
Derby Telegraph
August 31, 2013

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Ghost-life-priest-facing-extradition-16-sex/story-19734418-detail/story.html#axzz2dY11t7U0

A FORMER Derby priest being extradited from Tenerife to face allegations of sexual abuse involving altar boys over three decades appears to have "lived like a ghost" on the Spanish island.

Francis Paul Cullen, 85, who spent 18 years working at Christ the King Catholic Church, Mackworth estate, has been detained on a European arrest warrant issued by Britain.

He travelled to the National Court in Madrid to face extradition proceedings but his neighbours back in Arona said they hardly knew him.

Miguel Gutierrez said: "We knew nothing of the priest until we saw the police activity. If this man has lived here for as long as they say then it is amazing – we have never noticed him here."

German Beate Weber, 47, who also lives and works in Arona, said: "I spoke with the police because we had heard about an arrest. They said he had been keeping himself quiet – as if he was living like a ghost.

"We have seen this man two, maybe three times either in a local bar or taking his shopping home – but nothing more than that.

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It is not clear how long Fr Cullen was on the island but he was last known to be working within the Catholic Diocese of Nottingham, which includes Derbyshire, in the early 1990s.

He was originally ordained in May 1953 and was an assistant priest in Leicester before moving into the same role at the Church of Christ the King in Alfreton.

Fr Cullen, known then as Paul Francis Cullen, arrived in Mackworth in 1960 and, in May 1978, had his silver jubilee as a priest. He was transferred to St Anne's, Buxton, where he stayed until 1987.

He then moved to Nottingham. It is understood the earliest of the 16 alleged offences is from 1955 and the latest is 1991 and are claimed to involve boys aged seven, eight and 12.