A PRIEST has been told he will not be pursued over historic sex abuse allegations after he was asked to attend a police station.
Father Paul Morton, of St Bride's RC church in Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was interviewed by officers last Thursday before being told they are no longer investigating him over the claims.
The 55-year-old has been suspended since October, when an allegation dating back many years was made to police.
He was also asked to vacate the parish house attached to the church.
The Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal, in whose diocese the church is based, would not comment on the priest's future following the decision.
He had sent a letter to parishoners, read out during Mass on Sunday, saying that he still had to decide if the priest would return to St Bride's. It is not known if Fr Morton's suspension has been lifted.
He works closely with St Bride's Primary School but a spokesman for South Lanarkshire Council said that the priest's status was "a matter for the church".
He added: "We will continue to monitor the situation."
The priest's family said in a statement the anonymous allegation had been "an unwarranted and incomprehensibly malevolent act perpetrated by a malicious individual."
Signed by the priest's four brothers and two sisters, the statement added: "Our family wish to make clear for the public record that, with the dismissal of the allegation, Paul has been completely exonerated. His innocence, which he has maintained from the beginning, has finally been confirmed.
"We, his family, wish to affirm that the integrity of this dedicated, honest and principled man is intact and we know that his reputation will be immediately restored."
They described Fr Morton's "damaging and distressing ordeal" and said it had taken its toll on his "health, emotional well-being and on the very essence of his beliefs."
They added:"Without doubt, he will go on to surmount the huge damage which has been done to his life and we know that he will continue to give honourable service with his head held high."
However, there was no public reaction from Joseph Toal, the Bishop of Motherwell, who ordered the priest's suspension in the first place.
A letter from him, read to parishoners on Sunday, said he still had to decide whether Fr Morton should return to St Bride's.
The letter also said no further alleged victims had come forward during the police investigation and used the absence of "corroboration" to explain why the police inquiry had concluded.
However, one parishioner who did not wish to be named said:"The letter was very confusing. We don't know whether Fr Morton is coming back or not.
"If he has been cleared by the police, what's stopping his return?"
The parishioner also insisted that the letter ended up by saying the "victim" in all of this should not be forgotten.
A Police Scotland spokesman said:"We can confirm that police have carried out an investigation following a report of historical sex abuse.
"No further police action will be taken at this time."
The Catholic Church refused to comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article