A PRIEST has lost his case to have child sex abuse charges against him dismissed. In a reserved judgment yesterday, Judge Tom Burgess said a date would be fixed for the trial of Father Edward Kilpatrick (52), who has denied 20 charges of sexually abusing two boys in two parishes in Derry between March 1975 and August 1981.
Father Kilpatrick, who was not in court, will be the first Catholic priest to contest child sex abuse charges before a Northern Ireland jury. He was given administrative leave from his post as parish priest of Murlog in Lifford, Co Donegal, by the Bishop of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty, last October.