WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Daily Mail

by Jared Hunt
Daily Mail Capitol Reporter
Charleston Daily Mail

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Bishop Michael Bransfield, West Virginia’s highest-ranking Catholic official, issued strong denial Thursday morning to allegations he sexually abused a young boy in the 1970s.

The denial came one day after a witness in a clergy sex-abuse trial in Philadelphia testified that he was sexually assaulted in a home owned by Bransfield, and said he was told by his abuser that Bransfield had assaulted another boy more than 30 years ago.

“I have never sexually abused anyone,” Bransfield said in a statement released by the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese Thursday morning.

Bransfield could not be reached for comment in response to the allegations when the story broke Wednesday.