UNITED KINGDOM
Croyden Advertiser

A CATHOLIC priest has been arrested after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy.

Francis Moran, of St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church, in Brook Road, Thornton Heath, was questioned and then bailed by police last Thursday.

In a statement read out during Mass on Sunday, Archbishop Peter Smith informed parishioners that Canon Moran, 52, had been “temporarily withdrawn” from church life and moved away from the parish.

He added: “I want to make it clear that this action does not in any way imply guilt on his part, nor does it constitute Canon Francis’ removal from his office as parish priest.”