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Accused priest's account: 'teenage boy's fantasy'

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date25 May 2021
Date25 May 2021
Publication titleEvening Chronicle
Retired clergyman John Clohosey, 72, who presided over churches across the North East, denies raping a woman in 1986 in Gateshead and said what happened was consensual.

He claims that he visited her and after he asked her several times to have sex with him and she said no, she then said "I agree" and left to go into her bedroom.

Clohosey, a curate at the time, has previously told Newcastle Crown Court he waited several minutes then followed her into her bedroom, where she was partially dressed on the bed.

He told the court they kissed and cuddled, in what was the first sexual encounter of his life, but they did not have sex.

How realistic think this of course, for you, but is a bizarre Prosecutor

Prosecutor Shaun Dodds, in his closing speech, told the jury: "How realistic you think this all is, is of course, a matter for you, but it really is a bizarre account."

He added: "It is a strange, teenage boy's fantasy but when you look at it, it doesn't bear scrutiny."

Jurors have heard his accuser, who cannot be identified, asked the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle for help to pay a large bill and she grew angry when she was turned down as the Catholic church had paid out money to victims of sexual abuse.

She said in an email she herself had been abused by a serving priest years before, the court heard.

And she later told police she was raped in her own home by Clohosey after he had asked her to have sex with him several times.

Robin Patton, defending, said Clohosey did not try to minimise what happened...

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