‘Everything about this relationship was risky’

A woman, who claims she was sexually abused by a chaplain when she was a secondary school student, yesterday alleged in the High Court the priest performed oral sex on her in the school oratory.

The 28-year-old woman said that, after the sexual activity, the two of them got ready for a sixth-year graduation Mass. She said she was in fifth year at the school in the South-East at the time and was wearing her school uniform.

Referring to the alleged encounter, Miriam Reilly, counsel for the former Catholic priest, asked was it not very risky. The woman said “everything about this relationship was risky”. Replying to Ms Reilly, who put it to her this did not happen, the woman said she knew it happened and the priest had performed oral sex on her.