December 22, 2024 12:44 PM

Priest Secret Marriage: Catholic Priest Accused of Sexual Assault Had a Secret Marriage

During a trial in England of a Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, the jury learned that he had been married for more than a decade, secretly.

The Associated Press reported that The Bradford Telegraph and Argust quoted Jeremy Hill Baker said that the 59-year-old priest, William Finnegan, in fact had a hidden wife, Beverly Dawson and that they had been "deeply in love."

"No, you didn't mishear me. His wife," Hill-Baker said reported the AP. The couple married in 1999 in a secret wedding since the priest had taken a vow of celibacy.

Hill-Baker, told the jury according to The Daily Telegraph: "You may be thinking that he is only human, that Father Bill, as a Catholic priest, has taken a vow of celibacy, condemning himself to a single and lonely life filled with perhaps an underlying sexual frustration because, let's face it, it is not a natural state for a human to be in. "It would be understandable for you to be thinking, 'Well, perhaps it just got the best of him with that 17-year-old'."

Dawson said to the jury that he would visit his wife after finishing church services each Sunday and then go back to work Tuesday. The priest has denied touching the bottom of a 17-year-old girl and forcefully kissing her, but the jury found him guilty of sexual assault, reported the AP. His sentencing will take place on April 11 and it could carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The lawyer continued according to The Daily Telegraph, "So deeply in love was he that he was prepared to ignore the Catholic Church's ban on marriage, a secret which has been kept from almost everyone until now. Whatever the outcome of this case, his ministry as a Catholic priest is well and truly over."

The Daily Telegraph reported that Finnegan who was also know nas "Father Bill" was a parish priest at St. Clare's RC Church in Fagley, Bradford, West Yorkshire.

The alleged incident of sexual assault occurred on Easter Sunday of last year.

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