Priest denies sex assault of schoolboy

An elderly priest on trial for the alleged sexual assault on a schoolboy during sex education instruction in a school office testified yesterday, “I never touched him sexually, improperly — never.”

The complaint said he was in third year in school, in the mid-1970s, when he was called to the priest’s office for sex education. He said the priest masturbated him.

The defendant, who is not named for legal reasons, told Judge Gerard O’Brien and the jury at Cork Circuit Criminal Court it did not happen.