Anti-Leo US priest accused of attack af ter gay porn ‘ bust’
A WELL KNOWN New York priest who criticised Leo Varadkar’s sexuality has been accused of assault while watching gay porn.
A f emale security guard claims Fr George William Rutler sexually attacked her when she caught him watching pornography in the church rectory.
Ashley Gonzalez reported the alleged incident to police and also provided 18 seconds of phone video footage to investigators, the Archdiocese of New York and the Holy See.
Fr Rutler has denied the allegations. ‘I strongly deny this allegation, which I maintain is incoherent and painful to my reputation and inconsistent with how I have conducted myself in 50 years of ministerial service without any accusation of misbehaviour,’ he wrote in a letter to parishioners on November 20.
However, just last year Fr Rutler caused outraged when he used highly offensive l anguage to launch a homophobic attack on the then-taoiseach Mr Varadkar.
He claimed to EWTN, the global Catholic network, t hat Mr Varadkar was ‘publicly living in perverse contempt f or t he sacrament of holy matrimony’.
At the time, the Tánaiste and his partner Dr Matthew Barrett were i n Washington DC with US Vice-President Mike Pence at his official residence.
Fr Rutler told Irish Central that his comments were specifically directed at Mr Varadkar’s sexual orientation.
The Archdiocese of New York said that Fr Rutler has stepped aside from pastoral duties while authorities investigate his alleged attack.
But the church signage from December 1 and the website still list Fr Rutler’s name and prominently feature his picture.
Ms Gonzalez, from the Bronx, was working her second shift as an overnight security guard at St Michael the Archangel Church, on West 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan, on November 4.
During her shift, she claims she caught the prominent New York priest watching gay porn on an office PC in the church rectory.
She alleges Fr Rutler attacked her after she used her phone to record footage of him at his computer.
Footage that is 18 seconds long purportedly shows the back of a man sitting underneath a cluster of religious icons and portraits, watching gay porn on a computer screen. The man seen watching the screen is seemingly bald, as is Fr Rutler, although his identity could not be confirmed. Ms Gonzalez said Fr Rutler was ‘like a monster’. ‘He looked at me with a smile, looked away, and he put his hand inside his pants, and he was playing with himself,’ she told the TV station. When she tried to leave the priest’s office, she alleges that he slammed the door shut. ‘He aggressively threw himself on me and grabbed me sexually, aggressively, and I was fighting him off of me,’ she told News 12.
She then showed the television station screenshots of frantic text messages she sent to her mother during the alleged assault. ‘That was the scariest part too. I had no one to help,’ Ms Gonzalez said.
The Irish Daily Mail has contacted the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the New York Police Department and the Archdiocese of New York for comment.
However, Joe Zwilling, communications director for the archdiocese, told the National Catholic Reporter (NCR)in the US that ‘Fr Rutler’s case is currently in the hands of the District Attorney’ and that the archdiocese is fully cooperating with the investigation, although he did not respond to whether the archdiocese or the investigators had taken custody of the computer in question.
The archdiocese told News 12 that ‘ although Fr Rutler has denied acting inappropriately with the security guard, he has voluntarily stepped aside from the parish, and i s not currently serving as a priest.’
A spokesman for the DA’s office said the office ‘ does not confirm whether investigations exist’. Fr Rutler declined the NCR’s request for comment, stating in an email: ‘I am not permitted by counsel to comment except that I enjoy the confidence of my superiors and am totally innocent.’
A call to St Michael the Archangel Church also went unanswered. Ms Gonzalez said she hired a private investigator to look into the allegations. She is now demanding that the NYPD arrest Fr Rutler.
Manuel Gomez of Black Ops Private Investigators told NCR that Ms Gonzalez filed a police report and provided the 18- second phone video to investigators.
Since the alleged incident, Ms Gonzalez said she has not returned to work for MG Security. She said that the company offered to reassign her, but she refused.
MG Security told News 12 it took every measure to protect i ts employee in accordance with state and federal laws.
‘I am totally innocent’