PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly
By Steve Tawa
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — One of the main figures in the Philadelphia clergy child abuse trial has taken the witness stand to point a finger of blame at Father James Brennan, who is charged with attempted rape.
The accuser, now 30 years old, took the stand confidently, but by the time he recounted his overnight visit to Father Brennan’s apartment in West Chester in 1996, when he was just 14, he was trembling and sobbing.
He says Brennan showed him pornographic chat rooms on the computer and talked explicitly about male body parts. Then, Brennan insisted they both sleep in one bed. That’s when, the accuser says, the priest sexually assaulted him.
The man said he went from a being straight ‘A’ student to a downward spiral of drugs, alcohol, and crime. He attempted suicide three times.
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