{"id":27984,"date":"2025-04-17T16:36:11","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T16:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/27984\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T16:36:11","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T16:36:11","slug":"derry-priest-arrested-after-he-is-challenged-by-paedophile-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/27984\/","title":{"rendered":"Derry: Priest arrested after he is challenged by \u2018paedophile hunters’"},"content":{"rendered":"

breaking\u00a0|\u00a0\"The<\/p>\n

The man, aged in his 50s, was arrested outside a hotel in Londonderry\u00a0today (stock image)<\/p>\n

A priest has been arrested on suspicion of sexual communication with a child.<\/p>\n

It comes after videos circulated online of a man in clerical garb being challenged by self-styled paedophile hunters.<\/p>\n

The man, aged in his 50s, was arrested outside a hotel in Londonderry today.<\/p>\n

He remains in custody.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Derry said: \u201cThe Diocese of Derry is aware of an incident outside a hotel in the Derry city involving a priest of this diocese.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diocese knows that a video of the incident has been posted online and we understand the PSNI have been involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, the diocese has no further information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The man, aged in his 50s, was arrested outside a hotel in Londonderry\u00a0today (stock image)<\/p>\n

News Catchup – Wednesday 16th April <\/p>\n

The Catholic Church was contacted for comment. It shared the same statement issued by the diocese.<\/p>\n

The PSNI confirmed they were investigating.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson said the man \u201cwas arrested on Thursday, 17th April, on suspicion of attempted sexual communication with a child. He remains in police custody at his time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no further details.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Derry serves the Catholic congregation of 51 parishes across almost all of Co Derry, parts of Co Tyrone and Co Donegal, and a small area across the River Bann in Co Antrim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"breaking\u00a0|\u00a0 The man, aged in his 50s, was arrested outside a hotel in Londonderry\u00a0today (stock image) A priest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[13744,1817,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-27984","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-catholic-church","9":"tag-derry-news","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114354283205582957","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}