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Church elder convicted for repeated abuse
Saturday, 24 October 2009
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A Church elder has been convicted of the repeated indecent assault of a teenage girl in Co Antrim. Wheelchair-bound John William McConaghy (66), from Urbal Road, Dervock, was found guilty of all but one of 21 charges of indecently assaulting the girl between May 1975 and May 1983.
The victim is now a 44-year-old mother.
McConaghy had denied all the charges, but was put on the Sex Offenders’ Register and will be sentenced next month.
He was cleared of one charge, dating back to when the girl was 10 or 11, but on the next four charges, also specific counts, the jury convicted him by majority verdicts of 11 to one. He was unanimously convicted of the remaining 15 specimen charges. McConaghy’s cousin, John McElheran (53) from Ballinlea Road, Stranocum, also a church elder, was acquitted of four counts of indecent assault.
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