Abuse claims lead police to charge priest with nun’s murder

A WOMAN’S allegations that Roman Catholic priests sexually abused her during bizarre rituals led police to re-examine the 1980 killing of a nun and later charge one of the priests with murder.

The woman's allegations were not substantiated but one priest she mentioned was Father Gerald Robinson a suspect in the nun's killing years ago who was arraigned in Toledo, Ohio, yesterday.

Fr Robinson, 66, was charged with killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was strangled and stabbed about 30 times in April 1980. Her body was found in a hospital chapel, surrounded by lit candles with her arms folded across her chest.

Fr Robinson and Sr Pahl had worked together for several years at Mercy Hospital. Fr Robinson, the hospital's chaplain, performed the funeral for Sr Pahl, 71.

Fr Robinson made no plea when he appeared in court yesterday. Police detective Steve Forrester and Tom Ross, an investigator with the prosecutor's office, said the nun's killing was part of a "ceremony" in the chapel. The woman whose allegations led to the reopening of the case testified before the Diocesan Review Board and described satanic ceremonies. She said priests placed her in a coffin filled with cockroaches, forced her to ingest what she believed to be a human eyeball and penetrated her with a snake "to consecrate these orifices to Satan".

Now in her 40s, she also alleged that the clerics killed an infant and a three-year-old child, performed an abortion on her and mutilated dogs during the rituals.