Three of priest's abuse convictions quashed

Editorial Department • Published 19 Jan 2012 13:00

A priest who vowed to "fight to the last drop of his blood" to prove he is completely innocent of sexually abusing three young Fermanagh sisters has had his prison term reduced at the Court of Appeal.

This week, Father Eugene Lewis heard senior judges overturn three of the 11 counts of indecent assault he was found guilty of committing. Father Lewis(77), had been sentenced to four years in prison in September 2010 and with 50 per cent remission, his sentence has been effectively served and preparations are now being made to have him released. The Appeal Judges reduced his prison term to two years and nine months.

However while Lord Justice Higgins confirmed the appeal was being allowed on the first three counts of indecent assault, he said the Court dismissed the challenge against the remaining eight counts. Reasons for the reduced sentence reached at the Court of Appeal in Belfast will be given at a later date.

A member of the White Fathers, a religious order primarily devoted to missionary work in Africa, Lewis was at one time rector of the religious order's St. Augustine's College, now Loughan House Prison, at Blacklion. He met the girls' parents through another priest and when he joined the Messiah Choir in Enniskillen he took up an invitation to visit the family at their home in Fermanagh.

The molestation was alleged to have started when the sisters were aged as young as seven.

He denied the abuse, which was said to have been carried out between 1963 and 1973.

The jury heard that Lewis abused one girl while she was sitting at the kitchen table with her father, who was unaware of what was happening. He also abused her in the presence of her two sisters while reading them a story in the darkness of their bedroom.

She went on to describe how, when she was 21, Lewis raped her on consecutive nights after she was sent to him for counselling about her affair with a married policeman.

The priest was not charged with the rapes because the alleged offences were committed at the White Fathers' headquarters at Templeogue in Dublin.

The jury heard that another sister was seven or eight when Lewis came into her bedroom to read a story. He put his hand under the bed clothes and indecently assaulted her.

The trial also heard that indecent assaults against the girls were made at Blacklion and in their home.

During the six-week trial Lewis suggested the sisters were motivated by a family conspiracy or compensation claims.

The priest has continued to maintain his innocence and claims to have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

Opening his appeal before three senior judges in Belfast, barrister Mark Barlow argued that the 47-year delay in bringing the prosecution was potentially prejudicial.

He claimed the grounds for the appeal would show the guilty verdicts were "unsafe".

The barrister also questioned evidence from one sister who changed from a position of "forgiveness" to telling her husband early in 2007 about the alleged abuse.

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This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 19 Jan 12

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