A judge at Derry Magistrate’s Court today said that he was ‘disappointed’ that there was only one police officer assigned to the case of a priest who is facing sex offences.
58 year old Edward Gallagher of Orchard Park, Lifford had been charged with one count of attempted sexual communication with a child on dates between April 2nd and April 17th, 2025 and 7 further offences including inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and causing a child to watch sexual activity on April 17th.
There are also charges of possessing indecent images of children.
Defence solicitor Derwin Harvey said that no time frame has been identified for the case and said that the full file is not ready.
Deputy District Judge Trevor Browne gave two weeks to submit a completed file to the court and said he is ‘disappointed’ that only one officer was allocated to a case this size.
The prosecution described the charges as a ‘huge crime’ with 650 pages of communications in police possession.
Gallagher was remanded in custody to appear again on February 19th.
