NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY GREG HARKIN – 17 MARCH 2014
Almost 1,000 worshippers burst into applause 17 times as they welcomed a parish priest back to their church after he was cleared of child sex abuse.
Nearly four years to the day after false assault allegations were made against him, Father Eugene Boland looked nervous as he returned to his flock in Killyclogher near Omagh on Saturday.
Around 900 people crammed into St Mary’s Chapel and hundreds more in the parish hall next door to welcome back the 67-year-old cleric.
Fr Boland was returning to the ministry 18 months after being found not guilty by a jury on five charges of indecent assault, “inappropriate touching” of a girl, then aged 15, in Londonderry more than 20 years ago.
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