Nun accused of 63 counts of indecent assault goes on trial

A nun accused of the “systematic” abuse of seven schoolgirls almost 40 years ago has gone on trial. Sr Mary Teresa Grogan (above), a member of the Mercy Order, has denied 63 counts of indecently assaulting the girls when she was teaching them in third class in a primary school in the midlands.

Sligo Circuit Court heard yesterday that the alleged offences happened from 1973 to 1977.

A jury of seven women and five men were told that they would hear evidence from one complainant, who was in the nun’s class from 1973 to 1974, that the nun would call her up to her desk in the classroom and put her hand inside her underwear, indecently assaulting her.

Aileen Donnelly SC, prosecuting, said the other complainants would give evidence of indecent assaults which were “highly similar” but not necessarily identical.

Many of the victims were in court yesterday as the nun, now aged 62, answered “not guilty” in a barely audible voice 63 times, as each of the charges were put to her.

The trial, expected to take up to three weeks, continues today