LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Times
March 15 2018
By Wilma Riley
A retired priest has been convicted of the sexual abuse of three boys and a trainee cleric.
The offences were committed between 1977 and 1996 but the High Court in Glasgow was told that when the Catholic church was informed about allegations, Father Paul Moore, a priest in Ayrshire, was sent for treatment in Canada rather than being reported to the authorities.
Judge Lady Rae told the priest, who had denied the offences: “Mr Moore you have abused your position as a priest in the most horrible manner. You have been convicted of, particularly in relation to the young children, appalling abuse. The damage such conduct does to young people is immeasurable.”
The allegations against Moore, 82, who will be sentenced next month, were first raised in 1996 but it was not until 2015 that a major police investigation got under way after Graeme Pearson, a former senior policeman and Labour MSP, raised the matter in the Scottish parliament.
Bishop Maurice Taylor, 91, the bishop of Galloway between 1981 and 2004, told the court that in 1996 Moore admitted he had an attraction to young boys and had “a desire to abuse minors”. As a result, he was sent to a specialist clinic in Toronto for his problem. When he returned he was told he could no longer be a parish priest.
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