Accused Priest "Wanted Lie Detector Test"

BBC
March 8, 2018

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-43331238

Some of the offences were alleged to have taken place at Prestwick swimming pool

A retired priest offered to take a lie detector test when he was accused of sexually abusing a five-year-old boy.

Father Francis Moore, 82, from Largs, was being interviewed by police about the allegations which referred to events more than 40 years ago.

Fr Moore, who was known as Father Paul, is on trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

He denies all the charges against him, including that he sexually abused three boys and a student priest.

He also denies committing a breach of the peace at Prestwick swimming baths on various occasions between 1 August 1995 and 31 July 1996, by repeatedly staring at the bodies and private parts of young boys and others in the pool.

The comments about undergoing a lie detector test came as Fr Moore was interviewed at Saltcoats police station on 8 December 2015.

'Absolutely untrue'

He was asked to respond to allegations that he had sexually abused a five-year-old boy - now a man aged 46 - at St Mark's Primary School in Irvine.

He told the officers: "I think it is shocking. These are things I've never done.

"It is absolutely untrue. I would take a lie detector test. It disgusts me that would happen to a child."

He was shown a picture of his accuser as a boy and asked if he recognised him.

"Honest to God I don't," he replied.

Fr Moore was asked by Det Con Yvonne Morland, of the National Child Abuse Investigation Unit, about his occupation and replied he was a "retired minister of religion".

He went on to say that, after being ordained in 1960, he served in six different parishes in the south west of Scotland before retirement.

The trial before Lady Rae continues.