Confronted decades later

A former Coatbridge priest, who was exposed as a pervert when his victim confronted him 50 years later, was jailed for six months.

Father Michael Maher preyed on the girl at her home for four years, beginning in 1968 when she was 12 and he was 25.

The victim, who is now 62, kept her ordeal secret for decades but told her husband after Maher had conducted mass for her parents’ wedding anniversary in 2016.

Maher, 74, of Stobo, Peeblesshire, admitted lewd and indecent behaviour towards the girl between 1968 and 1972.