‘I call upon Almighty God to strike me dead if I did such a thing’

A Catholic priest broke down yesterday after calling on God to “strike me dead” if he was lying about an allegation that he molested a child.

Father Neil Horan called on everyone in the Old Bailey courtroom to witness his plea. He then broke down and wept uncontrollably. The court was adjourned while he composed himself.

Horan, aged 57, who is originally from Kerry, but now lives in Nunhead, South London, denies a charge of gross indecency with a seven-year-old child in 1991 when he was assistant priest at St Anthony’s Church, Penge, London.

The prosecution allege the child and her mother visited him in his bedsit adjoining the church.

It was claimed Horan stripped out of his vest and green underpants and chased the girl around the room.

Horan, who disrupted the British Grand Prix at Silverstone and the marathon race in the Olympics, agreed he was naked but denied the child had touched him.

Horan, who said he had not worked as a priest for 10 years, denied being sexually aroused.

Horan made his plea when the claim was put to him by defence counsel Julia Krish.

“Everyone here present, I call on you to witness that at this moment I call upon Almighty God in heaven to strike me dead this very moment if I did such a thing.”

Earlier, Horan showed the jury of four women and eight men a pair of green Y-fronts.

Asked how he knew it was the same pair he was wearing when the woman and child visited him, he said it was the same pair he wore when he disrupted the races in his national costume.

He said: “They are the ones I use for Irish dancing with my national costume. They are the ones I used at Silverstone and Athens. I never washed them so they were always ready for use. They are the only green ones I ever had.”

Horan said he had just had a bath and put cream on his itchy legs and “took the mother literally” when she “sarcastically” said: “You might as well take all your clothes off.”

He said: “There was no mention that there was anything wrong.”

He said the three played hide and seek and then the females tickled him on his bed, which he “did not enjoy”.

Horan said his relationship with the child’s mother was “unique”.

He said: “It was a good thing. I wish that all priests would have such a wonderful relationship. Out of the thousands of women I have ever met, this was a different relationship than any other.

“It was the closest and most intense I have ever had with a woman.”

He added: “I have never had intercourse with a woman on this earth and I never will. I will remain celibate on my dying day.”

Judge Gerald Clifton adjourned the hearing until today when the jury will retire to consider its verdict.