Revealed The priest used to ask me to wear short skirts and invite me to the seaside. He came to our door once but mum shouted ‘Leave my daughter alone’
Five girls accused former churchman
ACatholic priest accused of abuse in Scotland and California has faced allegations from five separate children, we can reveal.
The number of allegations against Joseph Dunne has increased calls for a full explanation from the Catholic Church as to when concerns were first raised.
He was told to leave Scotland but later got a berth at a church in California where similar allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards young girls.
A woman, now in her 50s, is the latest alleged victim to come forward to voice concern about Dunne’s behaviour when she was a 15-year-old girl attending his Glasgow church.
She says the priest, who denies all allegations of wrongdoing, encouraged her to wear a short skirt at tennis matches he organised, and once offered her money to go with him to the seaside.
Dunne was sacked by the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1988 after complaints about his behaviour by two other schoolgirls.
He moved to Los Angeles and established himself at two new churches, where he was later accused of inappropriate behaviour by two young parishioners.
In January, we told how Dunne was investigated by police in LA, but never charged. He continues to deny any wrongdoing.
The latest victim to come forward made a formal statement to the Archdiocese of Glasgow about Dunne’s behaviour after reading about him in the Sunday Post.
She said: “He came over as sleazy and devious.”
The woman believes Dunne was grooming her while she was a teenage worshipper at St Paul’s Church in Whiteinch, in the 1980s.
She said: “Father Dunne would visit our house and be friendly towards my parents.
“But his behaviour was creepy. For a number of months he would organise
– Alleged victim of Joseph Dunne
tennis matches for me at Scotstoun Showground, near St Paul’s Church. “He would book a tennis court and invite me and other teenagers. “He would phone me up at our house. He asked me to wear a short skirt. He really liked it on me.
“He would say, ‘Could you please wear your short tennis skirt?’
“I was not a pretty looking kid but he would lavish attention on me.” She became frightened when Fr Dunne asked her to go to the seaside in his car.
“He then called me up and said, ‘Would you like to go to the seaside? He said he wanted to give me money to go.
“It was then I became really scared. “I didn’t want to go because it felt wrong.
“Everyone knew he had a bit of a reputation, by then, for hanging around teenagers. “As far as I knew someone else had been asked by him to go to the seaside. Another teenage girl.
“I told my mother. When Father Dunne came to the door my mother answered and shouted at him, ‘Leave my daughter alone!”
“She gave him a real bawling out and I was embarrassed at the fuss she made, but I was only a teenager and probably didn’t realise the consequences of what was happening to me back then, being groomed.”
The family did not report Dunne to church authorities, but he later moved to a different parish, St Mary the Immaculate. In 1988 he was sacked from the Archdiocese of Glasgow. The woman, now married with a child, said: “As I grew older I realised what had happened and how I was groomed by a predatory priest,” she added.
“It has stayed with me and I have