SCOTLAND
Sunday Herald
Peter Swindon @PeterSwindon
Group Investigations Writer
A SCOTTISH priest has been struck off by the Catholic Church after he admitted having a 16-year affair with a “vulnerable” woman who went to him for counselling when he was a parish priest in Australia.
A senior bishop has also issued a “full and sincere apology” to the victim after the priest admitted he “allowed the situation to develop inappropriately” when the woman was feeling “grief, fear and loss of sense of her worth”.
The priest, Alistair Maclellan, now 79, first propositioned Sue Mason in 1999 when she sought “spiritual guidance” after her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
They had a long-term sexual relationship which ended when Mason, 63, caught him having late night chats with another woman on Skype. Maclellan has since returned to Scotland.
Despite Mason’s heartbreak she has insisted she still loves her abuser and blames the Catholic Church for enforcing a vow of celibacy which prevents priests from marrying.
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