UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

BY KIM PILLING

Canon Mortimer Stanley, now 84, was ‘a celebrity in the playground’ who allegedly targeted children that were dubbed ‘his special girls’, a court has heard

A “godlike” Catholic priest dubbed “a celebrity in the playground” sexually abused nine young girls over four decades, a court has heard.

Many of the schoolchildren were said not to have complained about Father Mortimer Stanley, 84, at the time, because of the “very high regard” he was held in by parishioners and teachers.

The priest allegedly targeted the complainants – who he called his “special girls” – in his presbytery at St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, Rochdale , where he would sit them on his knee and indecently assault them in various ways.

His alleged victims, aged under 11, were either pupils at the adjacent St Vincent’s RC Primary School or members…