A South African man has alleged that he was sexually abused for a number of years by a Catholic priest who has “now returned to the United Kingdom”, according to South Africa’s privately owned broadcaster eNCA.
Rights group Women and Men Against Child Abuse organised the Johannesburg press conference, in which the man detailed the alleged abuse and rape at the hands of the priest.
He said he met the priest while living at a homeless shelter in Johannesburg in the 1980s.
According to the man, the priest took an interest in him and said he would help enroll him in a private school. The priest also bought him clothes and took him for nice meals, he said.
The priest invited him for dinner one night to celebrate his enrolment in a school, the man said.
“But he also told me that I was to sleep over, which was fine… but when we were in the room instead of offering me orange juice, an Appletizer or a Coke, he offered me a whiskey.”
Once he was drunk, the priest allegedly listed all the “good things” he had done for him before saying it came with a condition, the man told the press conference.
“All I had to do was just give him a bit of pleasure”, the man said, before detailing the alleged sexual acts he had to perform on the priest.
He said he was 13-years-old at the time.
He also alleged that another priest “took advantage of me”.
The press conference is ongoing. BBC News
