'God forgive you' Gateshead rape accuser tells priest

The jury was told the woman had been reluctant to report the alleged incident

A woman who has accused a priest of raping her 35 years ago faced him in court and told him: "May God forgive you, you are a liar and a rapist".

Retired Roman Catholic priest John Anthony Clohosey, 72, who presided over churches across North-East England, is accused of attacking the woman 35 years ago at her home in Gateshead.

On trial at Newcastle Crown Court, Father Clohosey denies the charge.

He told police he had asked her for sex but that they just kissed and cuddled.

In a video interview shown to the jury, the woman, who cannot be identified, told police Father Clohosey visited her home and after an awkward conversation asked her to have sex with him and raped her when she refused.

Robin Patton, defending, suggested the sexual intercourse had been consensual, and that the priest visited her again a few weeks later.

She told the court: "That is a lie, that simply didn't happen."

Addressing Father Clohosey, of St Mary's Priory, Filey, North Yorkshire, she said: "May God forgive you, you are a liar as well as a rapist.

"If you can stand there with a Bible in your hands, the book you are supposed to live your life by, to save your skin, may God forgive you."

The trial previously heard the woman approached the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle for a loan to help her with a financial problem.

When that request was rejected, she then said in an email to her priest - who was not the defendant - that she had been abused.

Giving evidence, she explained how she named Father Clohosey having not mentioned it to anyone for more than 30 years.

However, once she came forward, she could "barely think of anything else", the court heard.

The jury has heard Father Clohosey told detectives they kissed and cuddled after going into the woman's bedroom but they did not have sex as his penis "went flaccid".

The trial continues.