UNITED KINGDOM
The Daily Record
June 12, 2018
By Airdrie And Coatbridge Advertiser
Perverted Father Michael Maher preyed on his 12-year-old victim at her home in 1968 and it continued for four years.
A vile former Coatbridge priest who was exposed as a pervert when his victim confronted him 50 years after he molested her has been jailed for six months.
Sick Father Michael Maher preyed on the girl at her home in 1968 when she was only 12 and he was 25.
The horrendous abuse continued for four years, including at his parish house in Coatbridge.
Maher, 74, was close friends with the girl’s parents and regularly called at their Lanarkshire home.
The victim, who is now 62, kept her terrifying ordeal secret for decades but told her husband after Maher had conducted mass for her parents’ wedding anniversary.
She contacted the priest by email in 2016 and Maher, who was then at St Isidore’s in Biggar, confessed his guilt.
Maher, now of Stobo in Peeblesshire, appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court last week and admitted lewd and indecent behaviour towards the girl between 1968 and 1972.
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