NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News
A former curate at St Matthew’s Catholic Church in east Belfast has been cleared of sex abuse charges.
Father Peter Donnelly was found not guilty by a jury on the direction of the trial judge.
The jury had been sworn in at Belfast Crown Court to try him for allegedly abusing a girl in the church parochial house over a five year period.
Fr Donnelly, 71, was charged with six counts of indecent assault and a further count of gross indecency.
He denied all the charges which were alleged to have taken place between 1983 and 1988.
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