AUSTRALIA
Courier
Alicia Thomas
@aliciajthomas
23 Aug 2016
A former Ballarat priest has been found guilty of indecently assaulting a young girl in her own bed more than 40 years ago.
Leslie Sheahan, 85, who was an assistant priest of St Columba’s Church at the time of the offence, will return to the Ballarat Magistrates Court next month for sentencing over the historic indecent assault.
The woman assaulted as a young girl by the former Ballarat priest while she slept told the court the traumatic experience still haunted her.
The woman, who was aged nine or 10 at the time of the incident, gave evidence she woke one night in the 1960s to find Sheahan in her bed with his hand down her pants while he forced her hand on his penis.
“He kept telling me how nice it felt for me and I kept thinking no it wasn’t nice at all,” she told the court.
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