Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
29% growth in Catholic abuse claims
THE number of people accused of abuse in the Catholic Church in England and Wales soared by 29% in 12 months, a report has revealed.
Almost three out of four alleged abusers were priests – with the overall number substantially higher than previous years.
The National Catholic Safeguarding Commission showed there were 162 cases in 2019, up from 125 in 2018 – while there were 118 incidents in 2017.
Most of the cases were historical but 18 people alleged the abuse had begun since 2001.
Chris Pearson, former chairman of the NCSC who died last month, had said: “We hold our heads collectively in shame at the profound impact of the horrific accounts given by victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.”
A WOMAN accused of preventing any attempt to warn a man allegedly murdered over an extramarital affair is to be released from custody, a High Court judge ruled.
Easther Mccook was granted bail by Mr Justice Scoffield on conditions including a prohibition on entering Ballymoney, Co Antrim, where Steven Peck was targeted.
The 46-year-old’s two sons also face charges over their suspected involvement in the fatal attack.
Mr Peck, 33, was discovered with a serious head injury near the Joey Dunlop Leisure Centre on January 3 this year.
He died in hospital a week later.
Mccook, of Urbal Road, Dervock, denies a charge of assisting offenders by providing a false alibi and interfering with witnesses.
A FORMER peer seriously sexually assaulted a fiveyear-old girl and a boy under 11, a court heard.
Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, 63, faces abuse charges with brothers Mohammed Farouq, 70, and Mohammed Tariq, 65, but they are “unfit to plead”.
The siblings all deny “repeatedly” abusing two young children for more than two and a half years.
Ahmed, of Rotherham insists the allegations from the early 1970s are “wicked lies” and a “fiction”, Sheffield crown court was told.
Prosecutor Tom Little QC said the woman, who came forward in 2016, was later messaged by a man who, in a taped call played to the jury, told her: “They did the same things as they did to you, the b ******* .”
The trial continues.
THE mission, which launched on July 30, 2020, will actively hunt for ancient Red Planet life signs.
No surface mission has ever done this, though NASA’S twin Viking landers did look for life after they touched down in 1976.
The rover will collect and store several dozen samples, which a joint Nasa-european Space Agency campaign will bring back to Earth as soon as 2031.
Once here, scientists worldwide can test the samples using more powerful and precise equipment than a single rover can carry to the Red Planet.
It will help determine if life can ever exist on Mars.
View of Mars from the Viking probe