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Catholic bishop accused of assaulting teen near Marian holy site and raping her begs for charges to be dropped
gbnews.com · 3d
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Across 5 sources · syndicated copies counted once
A Catholic bishop accused of raping a teen near a Marian holy site has begged for charges to be dropped. The Bishop of Northampton, David Oakley, attended the Old Bailey on Friday in a bid to have criminal charges against him thrown out. The 70-year-old clergyman faces one count of indecent assault and two charges of rape relating to a girl who was 15 at the time of the alleged offences. The accusations date back to the early 2000s, when Oakley was serving as a Catholic priest in his mid-forties. TRENDING Stories Videos Your Say After appearing at the Central Criminal Court, the bishop was granted conditional bail. Oakley is seeking to have the case dismissed entirely. The charges were brought in June this year after an inquiry conducted by Staffordshire Police's rape and serious sexual offences unit. Court documents allege that Oakley kissed the victim while on a Catholic pilgrimage to Lourdes, the renowned shrine town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. He is further accused of
First report: Bishop ‘raped girl, 15, in church and on canal boat and kissed her during pilgrimage to holy town’ — thesun.co.uk, 4d
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