Fr. Patrick Joseph Crilly, (63), from Tobermore Road, Desertmartin, Co. Londonderry, denied committing the offences in the Derry Diocesan Pastoral Centre on four occasions between September 1977 and November 1980.

During the sixth day of the trial at the Crown Court in Derry, defence counsel Brian McCartney QC asked the defendant how he reacted when informed of the allegations by another priest, Fr. John Farren, in November 2005.

"To be honest, I went to pieces. I was completely shattered in my life. It was an awful shock and I felt quite angry that something like this could happen. I had spent a lot of time trying to help a lot of people and I did not expect this sort of thing to be thrown at me", he told the jury of six men and six women.

Fr. Crilly said he remembered having one-to-one counselling sessions with the complainant, who is now a forty-five-year-old mother of two, on three occasions in the Diocesan Pastoral Centre when he was Director of Vocations in the Derry diocese.

"She was obviously suffering and in a certain amount of anguish. There seemed to be something else there which was causing her to be in a certain amount of emotion(al) pain", he said.

"I was concerned about the anguish she was suffering. I tried to help her rather than say it was no longer vocational work. She was crying. It was a heartfelt cry that you knew was not put on, it was coming from pain," he added.

"I finally reached out and put an arm around her, just to let her know she was not alone and I felt that was the most human way of expressing that to her. At that, she sat on my knee and continued crying. I decided that to push her off would be a sign of rejection or pushing her away, so I decided to let her calm down.

"I hoped to let her see that people cared, that the world was not an angry place, that it was full of people who would want to help others and that she was not alone in her time of pain and anguish and I was one of those who wanted to reach out and help her," he added.

The trial continues.