The High Court has halted the trial of a retired parish priest accused of sexually assaulting a young boy more than 40 years ago.
The 78-year-old priest had applied to stop his trial on four counts of indecent assault and eight counts of buggery against the then 11-year-old boy.
Mr Justice John Hedigan said the case fell into the “wholly exceptional” category of cases in which prohibiting a prosecution was justified due to “missing evidence and the antiquity of the events”.
All of the alleged acts were stated to have been committed between November 1967 and October 1969.
