– Amanda Bare on Joseph Dunne

He wanted me to play chase and tickle in the dark

An American woman broke her silence last week to accuse Father Joseph Dunne of inappropriate behaviour when she was a choirgirl in Los Angeles.

Amanda Bare was just 12 years old when she says Dunne – then aged 51 – began to single her out at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Santa Clarita, California.

Amanda, now 38, and a mum of one, said: “I was being brought up by a single mum, and I didn’t have a lot of friends. Somehow, Father Dunne just seemed to pick up on that. Wherever I turned, he seemed to be there.

“Whenever he saw me Father Joe would shout my name and come over and give me tight hugs and squeezes. He’d touch my hair and shoulders, tell me I was pretty.

“It felt odd when he held me too close and for too long, so I began trying to avoid him. I vividly remember his favourite game was chase and tickle and he kept wanting to play it in the dark.”

Amanda and her mum Chris, 69, a clinical psychologist, now believe Dunne was grooming the schoolgirl. Things came to a head when Dunne appeared at the family home, late one night, just as they were about to go to bed.

Chris said: “He said he’d just dropped by to watch some television with us. I left them in the room together. As I watched, Dunne took his Rosary beads and began rubbing them up and down Amanda’s leg.

“I immediately jumped up and went into the room and said to him ‘it’s time for you to leave’.”

Chris reported the incident to the parish priest and was called to a meeting – but says they did not appear to believe her.

Dunne denied any wrongdoing.