Priest charged with embezzling $50k from pensioner

A Galway-born priest charged with embezzling over $50,000 (€47,000) from an elderly parishioner in Florida was a vocal supporter of one of two jailed Irish clerics accused of defrauding their parish of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fr Nicholas King, aged 73, is charged with using money belonging to the elderly woman to fund a lifestyle “beyond his means”, according to police in Brevard County near Orlando.

The priest, who officially stood down as pastor of the parish he led for over 20 years just days before his September arrest, was a public supporter of Francis Guinan, one of the two Irish clerics propelled to nationwide and international infamy over their plundering of church coffers to fund gambling trips, rare coin collections, and homes.