Retired priest Father Mortimer Stanley accused of sexually abusing children over four decades

Father Mortimer Stanley, a retired priest, sexually abused nine young girls and a boy over the course of four decades, a court has heard.

The 84-year-old from Norden has denied 19 counts of indecent assault said to have been committed between 1977 and 2002, in which he is alleged to have abused children under the age of 11.

Manchester Minshull Street Court heard how the priest called the alleged victims his "special girls" and would indecently assault them in his presbytery.

Many of the schoolchildren were said not to have complained about Stanley, due to the “very high regard” he was held in.

Father Stanley moved into the Norden presbytery in 1977 when he was sent to the Salford Diocese and also became a school governor.

The BBC reported that having retired in 2002, Stanley returned to the Republic of Ireland shortly after the mother of one of the female complainants informed teaching staff that he had inappropriately and kissed her daughter.

The trial continues.