UNITED KINGDOM
Nottingham Post
By Peter Blackburn, Rebecca Sherdley and Martin Naylor
PAEDOPHILE priest Francis Cullen is finally behind bars – 23 years after he was first interviewed by Notts Police.
Yesterday, 85-year-old Cullen, who worked at St Mary’s Church, in Hyson Green, for three years, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of sexual abuse, including three offences against one Nottingham victim.
Notts Police first arrested and charged Cullen with sexual offences in 1991.
He appeared at court in October that year but skipped bail and went on the run. But, mysteriously, the warrant for his arrest was withdrawn in 2000.
In August last year, he was detained under a European arrest warrant and extradited to the UK.
Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to 21 charges of abuse against children as young as six, including altar boys, between the 1950s and 1990s.
But the case has prompted questions over who withdrew the arrest warrant and how he was allowed to go on the run for so long.
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