Priest ‘seen embracing’ 15-year-old

A WOMAN yesterday said she caught a priest embracing her underage sister.

She claimed Father Neil McGarrity, 58, and the 15-year-old were nose to nose at his home in March 2018.

McGarrity is on trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court accused of sexual activity with the girl. He is also accused of offences against three other girls in the city’s St Thomas and St Bernadette’s churches between December 2017 and February 2020.

The witness told the court she went to McGarrity’s for lunch with her mother and sister, and had been taken to the bathroom by her mother. The witness said: ‘When I re-entered the kitchen, he had his arms round my sister’s waist and she had her arms round his. It was a prolonged embrace.’

Prosecutor Derek Buchanan asked how her sister reacted. She replied: ‘Like a girl in love... with the man that was touching her.’

The trial continues.