PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Seattle PI
By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press
Updated 1:10 pm, Thursday, March 6, 2014
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia priest huddled and prayed with three Polish-order nuns in a courthouse hallway Thursday as he awaited a jury’s verdict in his child sex abuse trial.
The Rev. Andrew McCormick testified this week that he never molested a former altar boy whose mother had sought his counsel thinking her 10-year-old son was gay.
“If this guy’s a child molester, why is there only one victim?” defense lawyer William J. Brennan asked in closing arguments Thursday.
McCormick, though, has been suspended from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia since 2011 over other complaints, including allegations he was too close to another altar boy and ignored orders to steer clear of him. On the stand he also conceded he ignored church reprimands to keep children out of his private living quarters.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.