UNITED KINGDOM
Lancashire Evening Post
One of Lancashire’ s most senior Catholic priests is facing jail after being convicted of sexually assaulting a man in the presbytery of English Martyrs church in Preston.
Canon Stephen Shield, 53, the Dean at Lancaster Cathedral, committed the offences more than two decades ago against a man who hoped to join the priesthood.
In a harrowing video interview played to the court the man spoke of how his faith has been rocked by the sexual abuse he suffered.
He said he felt like his soul had been “ripped out” and the room had been “filled with evil”.
He told the court he felt sickened that Shield celebrated mass within hours of abusing him and that years later he still felt a connection to his abuser through the Eucharist, wherever he was in the world.
He said he always feared he would not be believed if he complained about Shield, as the priest had trained at the prestigious seminary in Rome.
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